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mcfanely · 4 years

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A Powerful Treasure

Archive of our Own

A new enemy has surfaced in Ninjago, but before his plans have even properly come to light, before much is even significantly known about the man; the ninja are attacked in the Monastery. They all get out unscathed, more or less, but when they can’t find Cole...

7488 words

There were times when Cole woke up in the Monastery and forgot where he was. It seemed to just be a fact of life, especially when that life included being a ninja and most of the time going from place to place in a mad rush to prevent the whole of Ninjago from being destroyed. So waking up to brief confusion as a soft orange haze of light managed to bleed through his closed eyelids was nothing new to the Earth ninja. He must have been in the bunk room on the Bounty, and unfortunate shifting in his sleep along with a perfectly angled ship had meant that a direct ray of sunlight was destined to go into his eyes as soon as he opened them.

No matter where he moved his head, nothing seemed to help it other than an arm thrown haphazardly over his face to prevent the light from coming in.

Then, over the course of a few seconds, it occurred suddenly that he didn't even remember boarding the Bounty the day before, nor he didn't remember going to sleep either. The process of getting ready for bed, it was the same every night. A few hours of relaxation and watching TV, maybe some games, late night training if Cole felt like it and his body didn’t ache, then he'd climb into bed and wake up to his alarm the next day to get ready for morning practice.

In fact, Cole didn't even recall having dinner that night. He remembered that Zane had started cooking, because everyone had set up shop in the dining room because they were researching… Something.

Something important, something that was a pressing matter. Something that Cole had no reason to have forgotten, but that wasn't the only thing he was blanking on.

A good portion of the previous day, a sheer blank slate in his mind.

Cole shot up sharply in bed, the quilt falling off where it had been tucked in around him and off the edge of the bed. Though the white cotton sheet getting dirtied on the floor wasn't the biggest of his problems in that instance.

It was what he was wearing, and the fact that he didn't own anything like it. They were simple clothes, a white t-shirt and trousers that seemed to be made from the same material, all the way down to the threading used to hold it all together. It looked like spools of sheer gold to the naked eye, so thin and sewn so carefully that each pass looked far too delicate to even touch.

He was barefoot, legs now crossed beneath himself as he sat up, staring down at his new get-up with a building sense of confusion and honestly, unease.

That wasn't even half of it. The next thing that Cole's sleep filled eyes were drawn to were the multiple golden necklaces adorned around his neck. The clothing in itself wasn't the best, the low cut shirt was nothing he'd ever choose to wear, but jewellery? And so much of it? Necklaces of varying sizes, with varying styles. Some with more of a chunkier design, interlaced with embedded gems, some that shone blue and deep purples, even some crystals that were clear and perfectly cut were set in their own golden casts, resting heavy around his neck and cold against his skin.

Cole couldn't help but grimace slightly at the sight, and partially at the situation he'd woken up to. His mind was still groggy with sleep, as it was every morning before he'd properly woken up, but sometimes a large enough shock was enough to force his mind into gear. That's exactly what he got when he looked up, the drowsy side of his brain telling him all he was going to see was his bedroom and nothing more.

Nothing more.

That wasn't what he was met with, and the sharp mental slingshot he experienced when what his eyes met didn't correlate with what he'd thought he was going to see made his mouth drop open.

"Holy crap." Cole whispered as his eyes graced over the room.

Not his bedroom, not the Bounty.

He was alert and on edge in mere seconds, shuffling to the edge of a king sized four-poster that was definitely not his own, his eyes flicking between every inch of the room he found himself in. Cole had no idea where he was.

The room was huge by bedroom standards, it was wide, circular in shape as if it had been crafted to fit into a tower, or the outer edges of a palace, because that's the first thing the Earth Master thought as he took in his surroundings.

Everything was varying between shades of near opalescent whites and solid and sheer golds. There were bookcases full of old tomes lining one wall, their pages cracked and wrinkled with time, use, and most likely exposure to the sunlight leaking into the room. The walls stood tall, almost twice the height than those in a regular house, the white finish patterned with ornate golden curves and flurries, some crafted and guided to form the shape of flowers, some budding and some fully open with their petals spread wide; some formed leaves and stems, climbing up higher and higher in an ornate mural to nature. Each stroke seemed to be hand painted to perfection, not a single aspect out of place. The other walls had the same treatment, towering high and covered beautifully with art.

There were chairs dotted around the place, carpets and cushions set out in an organised fashion over the wooden boarded floor, a table with a small stack of what seemed to be notebooks and an assortment of pens and pencils beside them.

Then, just to his left, there was the most elaborate window Cole had ever seen in his life. It stretched floor to ceiling in an arched pattern, twin golden frames curving up and meeting together just before the ceiling began, and a single pane of fitted glass had been oh so carefully slotted in between. An incredible and astounding feat of craftsmanship, only emboldened by the curtains draped down the sides, long enough to collect and bunch on the floor in what nearly seemed like a treasonous act. The golden fabric was almost opaque, doing no significant job of keeping the sunlight out. They were there for futilities sake; serving no purpose other than to look nice in the room and that was it.

Cole stepped just a bit closer to the window, his bare feet tapping lightly on the wooden boards as he neared the looking glass which currently only displayed the world outside as a layer of blue with multiple different blankets of clouds dotted over the skyscape.

That was all he could see before he was halted in his step half-way between the bed and one possible way outside, by a force that held his arms back and almost tripped him in his step.

The situation he was in changed in that single instant, from a clear sense of uncertainty and wariness of waking up in a completely unknown environment; to immediately being on edge and alert for any possible dangers that could be shrouded in the room that seemed to be built for royalty.

All Cole could do was stare back towards his bed, specifically at the floor, and wonder how he hadn't noticed it before. Maybe it was the shock of the room, or overall being thrown into the new situation, but it had now become something much more threatening.

Lengths of chains were stretched out over the floor, thick links that dragged and scratched with each movement Cole made. Stretching from seemingly some hidden point under the bed over to where he was standing, only then lifting off the floor and reaching up to where they ended, welded neatly onto a set of ornate cuffs that sat tightly around his wrist. How had he not noticed them, how had he not realised--

Chained… I'm chained down and the first thing I notice is the damn room?

Cole found himself staring down at the metal, moving his arms and legs and watching as the four individual lengths of chains shifted with each movement, as if those objects themselves were driving home the fact that they were in fact locked around his wrists and ankles in a present and heavy weight. The chains themselves were bulky, but the cuffs were a whole other thing. They stretched half way up his forearms and Cole couldn't find the seam where the clicked shut, nor a slot for a key to open them up.

They seemed to be one single piece of metal all the way around, they shifted and turned when he moved but they didn't do much else. Mere millimeters away from cutting off circulation to his extremities, and for a way to keep him captive in that one room they had no business being as elegant as they were. Reflecting the sunlight of what occurred to Cole as an ending day, the bright yellows that had cascaded through the window faded further and further into the depths of orange that indicated an oncoming sunset, it gave the cuffs a glow to them. Warm and soft, a sheer oxymoron. The surface of them was etched with light grooves, interspersed with an inset obsidian black stone.

Cole was around five minutes into pulling on the chains, the clang of metal hitting the ground and then being pulled taut to within an inch of its life resounded around the previously quiet room; when he realised the black rock was Vengestone. The cuffs dug into the skin at his wrists, leaving deep grooves and reddened skin in its wake, and whilst his strength was great even without his elemental abilities, even if he had his powers something told him that these chains weren't going to give so easily.

"Come on, come on! Break! Please break, please--!"

It was when blood was drawn that Cole decided to stop, a red line manoeuvring its way down the palm of his hand and his index finger to drip silently onto the floor.

Cole followed suit, sitting down against the side of the bed and just allowing his head to droop forwards. It wasn't in defeat, he wouldn't allow it to be in defeat, he wasn't giving up already. When the pain in his arms subsided he'd just try again, and again afterwards.

Again until he either broke the chains, or pulled the deadbolt out from where it was embedded in the concrete wall underneath the bed.

He just had to wait for his muscles to stop aching before he started up his onslaught on the chains again. The brief respite from activity gave him some time to try and resolve the gaps he had in his memory.

There was a large blank section, starting the day before, as he'd just sat down at the dining table with a brand new and far too large book on Ninjagian Lore and Power, entirely reluctant to open it up even though he did enjoy reading. There was a vast difference between reading for pleasure and mandatory reading, and Cole knew which one he preferred.

Then there was nothing, an empty space in his memories that must have been extensive since he was sure it had been at least a day since he'd been walking the halls of the Monastery. Though the more Cole tried to discern what fitted into the gap, what had occurred that had ended with him waking up in an unknown room who-even-knew-where, chained down, the more the answer eluded him.

Cole grit his teeth, closed his eyes, and tried to find something. Anything. He'd sat down with a book, gone to open it-- nothing.

He'd sat down with a book and opened it, then nothing.

Always nothing.

"Why don't I remember..?" Cole mumbled quietly to himself, his hands fisted tightly at his sides. "Why is everything blank, why can't I think?" He wasn't talking to anyone in particular, but he needed to vent his frustration some way.

All he needed was one thing, one memory! Anything that would just give him something to work with.

That section remained carefully blank.

The room he was in had no reason to look so nice, the mattress at his back shouldn't have felt so soft. It was a cage, no matter what it looked like. The chains around his wrists didn't have enough slack to let him reach the window so they definitely didn't reach the door on the opposite side, it was a gilded cage fit for royalty. Far too lavish. Nauseating almost.

There wasn't anywhere in Ninjago like it, at least no place that Cole could think of off the top of his head.

All the golds and light pouring in from a giant window provided a rolling and extensive view of the fading sky. Then, looking at himself, he realised with startling clarity that he fitted the theme too with what he was wearing. Whites and golds, even the vengestone chains followed suit.

He knew he wasn't getting them off any time soon, but he could definitely make himself feel better. Starting with the golden cords around his neck, lacing his fingers around them and yanking until either the clasps broke or the small chains splintered. They ended up thrown at the opposite wall, landing in a broken and heaped mess, flecks of metal and inlaid gems clanking and bouncing out over the floor as the ruined jewellery landed. Cole then moved on to the bangles around his wrists, twisting and distorting the thin metal until they gave in to strain and broke. Again, discarded in their own wreaked pile.

He was about to move onto the shirt, hands poised to start tearing at the seams and tearing the fabric when the click of a lock quickly drew his attention to the door of the room.

Cole was on his feet in an instant, his arms drawn up and in front of himself in a defensive position. As the door swung open he stood his ground and readied himself for whoever or whatever was about to step inside.

Whether years of fighting against less than human entities in an effort to prevent the destruction of Ninjago, a man who looked just a little bit older than himself walking in hadn't been what Cole had anticipated; but an enemy was an enemy.

He was the one in chains, that man was not. There was an all too present imbalance but that didn't mean that Cole was at a disadvantage. All he had to do was wait for him to step closer, when they were close enough and if there was enough slack on the chains then all it would take was a well timed and solid strike to the side of the head and the man would go down. Clearly, the man had a key to the door, so he'd probably also have something for the cuffs too.

Though with the distance, all Cole could do was stand his ground, stare down his captor and demand some answers.

Only to be completely thrown off by the first words that come out of the guy's mouth.

"Ah, my treasure wakes."

The man proceeded to advance further into the room, closer to where Cole was standing and besides his better judgement, besides the plan he was going to enact just a few seconds ago, the ninja took a few steps back to maintain the distance between the two of them. The words, the almost honey-sweet lilt to them, the way the man's voice made the hair on the back of his neck and his arms prickle. He was on edge in an instant, uneasy, and the look held in the man's eyes as they just seemed to trace over his body was anything but calming. If he was at all bothered by the broken jewellery, he wasn’t letting on.

His eyes were a deep yellow, and not just the cornea, but the entire thing. Almost like a buffed tigers eye gemstone had been dropped into each of his sockets. The man was dressed regally too, flowing robes in vibrant shades of purple and interspersed with golden trim, shoulder length jet black hair clashing sharply with the pale pallor of his skin. There's a crown on his head too, and Cole realises that within the intricate pattern of gold, a yellow veined piece of vengestone was suspended in the centre. It almost looked to be floating.

Still, he was advancing, and Cole's legs coming into contact with the bed frame forced himself to halt his own retreat. He liked to think he was tall, but as the man stopped just in front of him, there was enough of a height difference that it forced the Earth Master to cast his gaze upwards.

"I've been waiting for you to wake up, you were asleep for a lot longer than I'd anticipated but alas, here we are." The man gave a small smile, and Cole's expression blanched as he felt the man's fingers wrap lightly around his left wrist. It was more than easy to bat them away, the motion accompanied by the clank of swinging chains. That rejection didn't seem to perturb the man, who just continued with what he was doing, this time lifting one hand and threading it into the strands of Cole's hair.

One warning, that was enough, but the instant he felt the grip tighten in his hair was the point at which the man was solidly shoved away. There was a light stumble, and Cole's brows were furrowed in indignation, his own hands up in between the two of them to act as a barrier. It hadn't taken much strength to get the guy to move away but the hand yanking at his hair as it was dislodged left a low hum of pain in his temple.

"Don't touch me." He ground out, his fists clenched tightly. He wasn't going to stand there and be handled by a stranger as if he was just something to be admired. That was what he saw in the man's eyes, what he read in his expression even just after a few seconds. Initially, he'd hoped that the assumption was mistaken, but the actions and words?

"I get that I'm a prisoner, but that doesn't mean I'm taking your crap, you touch me again and I'll break your face." Cole spat.

Only to be met with a light and jovial laugh. "Ah, as stoic as your element. I knew there was a reason I picked you." the man spoke, something new and entirely unreadable floating in his eyes, "You're not a prisoner, Cole."

Cole didn't allow himself to bristle at the fact that the man knew his name, most people did nowadays, so he just lifted his wrists and the chains moved with them, his expression shifting carefully to neutral, "Sure, because I definitely don't feel like one."

The man nodded, as if he didn't get the joke. Or maybe he did, he just wasn't going to humour him with the sarcasm he'd tried to use. There was a brief moment when the room fell into silence, only for the man to break it quickly by crouching down and picking two loose loops of chain in his hands, rolling the golden links over in his palm for a brief second as he looked over the glinting metal. "Exactly."

Then he tightened his grip and pulled in one fluid motion. Cole's arms were yanked forwards first, the chains dragging the cuffs with them only caused him to stumble forwards and forcibly bridge the gap he'd just made between the two of them. His hands were pulled down to his side by the unyielding chains grasped in the man's hold.

It was embarrassing, but any other feeling was quickly overtaken by the situation as a whole. He hadn't even noticed what the man had been doing before it was too late, he hadn't even spared a second glance when he'd stooped to lift the chains, Cole hadn't even thought twice about what he'd planned. He'd just watched it all play out like an idiot.

He twisted his wrists in the shackles, pulling upwards against the opposing strength but whoever that guy was, there was no contention of who was stronger in that situation. He simply held the chains in one hand by his side, preventing Cole from lifting his arms to any significant degree.

They were chest to chest, the man's face crooning down to his own with an all too soft expression, "You're my guest. You're safe here."

The unnerving calm of the man's manner was opposed by the seething vitriol that the Earth Ninja managed to muster as he glared back. Their faces were mere inches apart, solid yellow eyes boring down into his own.

Again, like before, he felt the man's free hand lift into his hair, looping a longer strand around one of his fingers. There wasn't time to take in the discomfort that came with the light touch as Cole shook his head to dislodge the hold.

This time, it didn't do much good. The hand was there again, fingers carding through like before.

He wanted nothing more than to deliver on the previous promise of breaking the guys face, if it meant just getting him to let go and go away, but with his hands pinned down and no way to manoeuvre out the situation at hand, he forced out a heavy breath and decided on a much more logical approach. If all options are exhausted, go from a different angle.

If he couldn't break the man's hold, he'd talk. Get more information, try and fill the gap in his memory. Stall for time and find an opening. Something.

"I'm not a guest, but if I'm not a prisoner, then what am I?" Cole questioned, forcing himself to keep his face neutral as he felt the strangers hand tug lightly on the back of his hair. "Why am I here?"

The man gave a chuckle, his hand blessedly dropping away from his hair only to get the ghost of fingers caressing lightly over his cheek. Then when he felt the full warm touch cupping the side of his face, Cole couldn't keep the repulsed look at bay as he tilted his head as far as he could in the other direction.

There was a sudden flash of irritation, but that quickly quashed under a careful sigh as if he'd never been phased to begin with. Though it was preceded by a glowing glare in his eyes, the different scars that Cole could now see cleaved through the man's hair, leaving present but healed grooves. Then there was the grin, the all too white smile and the sharpened canines that he could see now that they were far too close quarters, "That's not of any importance, you're here now and that's all that matters."

In that instant, unannounced, memories came flooding back.

The rumours that he and his brothers had heard about a travelling sorcerer. A man, passing from village to village who generally stayed on the rural outskirts of Ninjago. Whether it was to stay under the radar or something else, any and all pertinent news tended to find its way to them at one point or another.

An unknown man who would charm the locals and spend a few days at each new location, for then to simply raze the area to the ground and move on.

He'd disappear for a few days and then crop up again, seemingly as bedraggled as he had been that very first time the man had shown his face. No trace of the kindness the previous villages had expressed to him, no gifts of fresh clothes to replace the worn ones that were practically falling from his body. He would just stay, wreak havoc, and then move on. With each new village, the end result seemed to get worse and worse. It started with harvests being culled, vast fields of rice rotting and dead. Then, homes had been targeted. Old, dried wooden beams weakened with rot and mould that worked its way from the inside out until the houses collapsed.

Every time the ninja had heard of this mystery man being in a certain area, all they constantly arrived to find where displaced lives, ruined livelihoods. But always too late. They all helped in any way they could, clean-up crew, basic first aid, collected as much information they could, then like every other time before that they just returned back to the monastery with nothing more than a feeling of uselessness.

It had taken their collective force around a week to figure out who this wandering destroyer was, and Sensei Wu had been fairly insightful even if what he had provided had been a bedtime story he'd been told of in his youth. It was exactly the man they'd been searching for.

A powerful sorcerer by the name of Acacius had used to travel the land during the time of the First Spinjitzu Master. A wanderer. He'd go from place to place, areas of power as Sensei Wu had dubbed them, and drain it all dry. Then move on to the next place. He'd done it for decades, terrorising people and elemental masters alike, draining life away from lands, destroying crops, removing life forces. Apparently when a story was told by the man who had split apart a continent and created a realm, there was no moral or warning, just information and a true tale. Either way, it was also a pretty dark bedtime story.

The story ended as most did, with the heroes triumphing over evil. Though it wasn't anything large or garish, it was resolved quietly.

The First Spinjitzu Master had finally caught up with this incredibly powerful sorcerer, this creature twisted on stolen power and a near incandescent drive for more, and had locked him away. Where? That hadn't been important to the story. Apparently vagueness ran in the family.

Cole remembered listening to the story before picking up a book on ancient lore, flipping straight to the back and to the index of the tome, tracing his finger carefully down the letters until he found Acacius.

Before he'd even focused properly on the list, the front gates of the Monastery had ruptured inwards, followed by a sheer cascade of energy that had ricocheted through the halls and blown all their written notes clean off the dining table and onto the floor.

They'd all grabbed their weapons and headed to the courtyard of the Monastery in seconds, facing a man-- Acacius, no longer dressed in rags, no longer lying to appeal to the good nature of caring people. He was standing tall, back straight, a wicked grin on his lips which only seemed to widen further when both Lloyd and Wu had stepped out to face this ancient enemy.

Cole remembered that they'd fought. They'd fought and fallen, been batted into the stone walls encasing their home and watched as different sections fell down and crumbled around their brothers, who proceeded to get up and join the fray again with no second thought to injuries. No one could seem to get close enough to the sorcerer, charging at Acacius with unrelenting synchronisation though all the while he continued to laugh about how it had been so easy to find them.

Creation and Energy, both in one place? It's almost easy pickings, I could sense you from miles away!

The voice was deep, it vibrated through Cole's core with the power the words alone exuded. It was clear how the man had been able to hold his ground, however briefly, against the First Spinjitzu Master.

It promptly became a fight to protect Lloyd and Sensei Wu and the power they both possessed. Only it didn't end like that.

Cole was the only one who'd managed to get some form of a significant hit in. He'd shuck the ground with a light stamp of his foot, and the fissure that had split the inlaid stone of the courtyard was enough to cause a mere second of distraction for the sorcerer.

He'd charged forwards, and had kept going even as Acacius had locked eyes with his own. His legs were already moving and there was already so much momentum, all Cole needed to do was commit and swing his hammer. The attack wasn't his best, and with a last minute shift from the sorcerer, it left him swinging that bit too wide. Initially, he'd thought it would miss in its entirety, yet the weighted metal had scarcely managed to clip the man's jaw enough to throw him off balance.

In the following seconds, he had felt a hand pressed to his forehead, and the world had flickered to black.

Then he'd woken up.

Cole couldn't help but stumble at the sudden flood of information, the gap in his memory all too quickly blazed with missing images and memories, enough that the abrupt movement had caught both him and his captor- Acacius, off guard.

It took one step back and his legs clipped the edge of the bed frame, the obstacle only caused him to fall backwards onto the mattress. Though he recovered quickly and used that short moment to put more space in between him and the sorcerer, pulling his wrists and yanking the chains until all the slack that he had was now on his side of the bed and couldn't be used by the man as a immobilisation tactic again.

Acacius, who hadn't shifted from where he'd been standing beforehand, had a large grin plastered over his face. His gaze seemed almost soft, almost caring even; it only served to make Cole shudder.

"I visited your home to gain more power." He explains after a short moment of quiet, his gaze resolutely fixed on where Cole was standing, Acacius almost seemed annoyed at the bed between them, "So many elemental masters in one place, it was like a buffet." He took a deep breath in, his eyes closing. It was almost like he was being chided for the circumstances that had led the man to their home. Not that there had been any feasible way to find out in such a short space of time that Lloyd and Sensei Wu would be at risk.

Why he'd decided to change tact and take him instead, Cole wasn't sure. If there was power, as much as he hated that he even thought it, Lloyd was the logical pick. Though between any one of his family and himself, if he knew that they'd end up locked and chained in the room he was in now, staring back at a powerful sorcerer with an unknown plan and newfound freedom after being imprisoned; Cole was glad it was him in that situation.

"But then I saw you," Acacius continued, "And my plans changed just a little. I've always liked you Earth Masters, you see." He kept his gaze on his captive as he took a short step to the side, one that Cole mirrored in the opposite direction. The sorcerer seemed amused by the reaction. "You have a lot of power, sure, nothing comparable to Creation or Energy but you're definitely up there. You can direct energy, just like I can. I'm sure you can make nature flourish with just a small nudge," He says, it's more of a question than a statement, and Cole almost answers before he caught himself and closed his mouth again. "My power decreased vastly over my… Many decades being imprisoned, but you. You can help me."

At that, the short step the man had taken previously turned into a stride as he circled around the bed. Cole had both feet on top of the mattress in a second, intent on cutting over to the other side but a hand clasped around his wrist halted any significant plan of getting away. He should have moved faster, but what the sorcerer was planning, it had him stumped. His power didn't redirect energy, it made the earth shake. Sure, maybe plants grew around him, grass seemed to be greener in his presence, but that wasn't energy, that was just his element. That short moment of being lost in thought was a moment too much.

He was dragged from the bed with a yelp, his back shoved sharply against the wall and the grip on his wrist tightened to a near bruising hold that made him grit his teeth against the pain.

Acacius was hemming him in, more so than before. With the wall at his back there wasn't anywhere he could retreat to, and with the bed to his left and his captor looming too close to his right he was well and truly backed into a corner.

"Think about it," He hummed in a whispered tone, "With your power, you can move energy around more freely than I can. Maybe only to plant life and through the earth currently, but given time, you can learn to transfer it to me." Cole simply stared, was he really giving away what he was planning? That he just wanted more power, and a constant supply of it? That Cole could help with it and that was why he'd taken him? Why his powers were locked down with Vengestone instead of being drained away at the hands of this power hungry ancient being?

Trapped where he was, listening to Acacius liking the sound of his own voice, Cole scoffed loudly in the face of the man who was standing far too close, far too in his personal space. It was uncomfortable and he wasn't a fan of being pulled around by his wrist and chains as if that was what it took to have a civilised conversation. There was no being civil about anything, so he wasn't going to be polite in return. There wasn't much that was going to stop him from throwing a wrench into his plans, being spoken down to was more than enough to develop a solid dislike of a person, though before he could say anything along the lines of no, that's never going to happen. You have about two days before my brothers find me and you, and then less than a week until you're imprisoned again.

He had faith, and the speed of which they reacted to a situation increased tenfold when someone they cared about was in danger.

"You're so beautiful."

Cole froze in place, his eyes widening just a fraction at what he'd just heard. It was said with a quiet sigh, the warm puff of air just beside his face. He grimaced, pushing himself back into the wall to just try in vain to get further away from the man. The situation had taken a turn, a very dangerous turn.

"... What?" He questioned, his voice carefully measured. It gave nothing away, though he was sure his eyes were being windows to his soul. He could feel the tenseness in his body, the rush of adrenaline through his muscles.

Cole felt the grip that was latched around his wrist move down to his hand. His mind was moving a mile a minute, trying to figure out what he'd missed about his current circumstances. Usually prisoners were taken in order to give said person no other choice but to carry out the demands of their captor, or outright refuse and await rescue, whatever the repercussions may be. He had been taken prisoner because of his supposed complimentary power to the sorcerer, but he could clearly see that wasn't the whole story. Was this supposed affection the driving force behind everything, or was it all part of some larger plan in place?

There must have been so much more to it, there had to be.

Or maybe there wasn't. Maybe his powers and how they could apparently be used was the added bonus in this situation.

Cole took in a sharp breath, and solidified his gaze, "I don't care what you think, or what you want from having me here, but I'm not helping you with anything." He spat out.

Acacius lent forward, his voice close enough to Cole's ear that he shuddered, leaning away as much as he could. He forced himself to remain calm, ignoring the man's advances in favour of staring at the door that was just left hanging open as if tempting something he couldn’t have. Outside, there seemed to be a corridor that went off in either direction, but even if he could get out of the sorcerer's hold, he still wouldn't be able to leave. Not with the chains.

He really was counting on his brothers this time, placing faith in the fact that they would find out where he was, that they'd come barging in, breaking down the door and freeing him. He needed them to come in at that very moment. The silent hope that they'd walk in any second depleted as the seconds ticked by.

"The great thing is, Cole, I don't need you to be okay with helping me increase my power." Acacius pulled back just a little, his solid eyes dancing slowly over Cole's face, as if looking for something, or waiting.

"When we're married," He started, and Cole felt a lead weight drop down in his stomach, but before he could say anything against it, laugh, roll his eyes, lash out, anything at all, Acacius continued on as if what he was saying was completely normal. "I'll get to keep you all to myself. Your power will be mine to wield, and mine alone.” His voice was so carefully measured, “I don't need you to agree to my plans, I just need to keep you here for a few more days. What did you say, two days ? And your friends will be here? You'd better hope you're correct, my sweet." A thumb was stroked carefully over his cheek.

Cole saw red in an instant, and closed in against a wall or not, mind still reeling and trying to take in and just compute what he'd just heard; he could work on instinct when everything else failed. Instinct brought a hand up, balled tightly into a fist and whilst the impact that was made between his knuckles and his captors nose wasn't anything to shout about, the clank of the chains being permeated by a shout of pain and what was hopefully the crack of cartilage was music to Cole's ears.

The action was over before he'd even realised what he'd done, but the aftereffects were a sight. Acacius collected himself off the floor from where he'd fallen backwards, hands held resolutely over his face to presumably stem the blood flow and conceal a broken nose.

Cole wasn't smiling though, his heart was racing, his teeth were clenched as he stepped closer to his captor.

"My power isn't yours to use!"

The Earth Master dropped down into a fighting stance, his gaze set on the sorcerer as he got up. Yet, when he stood up straight and moved his hand away from his face there wasn't the pouring line of red blood dripping from his nostrils that Cole had anticipated. It was black, flowing like ink from a quill, dripping off his chin and staining the floorboards below. Surprisingly, there was no anger in the man's eyes, just an unusual admiration and to Cole's disgust, a fondness that was now clearly at the surface. Teeth were bared in a small grin, the black blood staining his teeth when it found its way into his mouth.

He'd fought worse enemies before, and he'd inevitably do it again in the future. This man… This thing, he would just be another name on an ever growing list. Cole tilted his head until his neck popped lightly, then clenched his knuckles until those joints followed suit. He was at a disadvantage, but he wasn't going to lose this fight.

His anger just spiked sharply with every second they stared at each other. "You can't make me do anything. I'm not marrying anyone, I'm not helping you with your energy addiction and I'm not just going to sit back and do nothing!"

Acacius seemed to be taking all the time in the world righting himself, starting with tugging on his waistcoat to flatten the crumples back down, to pulling a pure white handkerchief out of a hidden pocket to wipe at the black ooze still falling from his nose. It didn't do much, only serving to smear what was there, but he didn't seem too bothered by it, nor the blackened stains that had fallen onto his clothes. No, his attention was stoically set on Cole.

He didn't take a step forward this time, almost as if he was treating his prisoner like a frightened animal, which he wasn't. Though he was fairly predisposed to fight back in an instant should he feel at all threatened. Cole hadn't moved out of his fighting stance, and wasn't going to any time soon. That was clear.

"You must be pretty exhausted, with all this thinking and worrying." came the man's voice, softly spoken over the space that had formed between them.

All that was gained in return was a raised eyebrow and a scowl.

Acacius spread his hands carefully, and Cole could have sworn that the man’s eyes seemed to flicker with an all too sudden yellow glow.

There was a minute step closer, the sole of the sorcerer's shoes clicking against the wood as he said, "You don't want to fight me, perhaps some sleep will do you some good."

The effect was instant, the words… They seemed to resonate so deeply, cascade around the room in a reverberating wave until they met Cole's ears, crashing down and enveloping his mind in a sudden and palpable haze.

His arms dropped from their defencive stand, hanging loosely down at his sides. His eyes followed suit, eyelids growing heavy in mere seconds, the drag of sleep so instant and all encompassing that he'd never felt such sheer levels of exhaustion in his life.

It felt wrong.

"What-- what did you do..?" Cole questioned, his words slurred and drawn out, his tongue heavy in his mouth. The question was quiet, whispered, and broken by a large yawn that came up from nowhere.

He could feel his body shutting down, any drive to fight the man that was stepping closer had all but faded out of existence. He didn't want to fight, he could even keep his eyes open. All he wanted was to sleep.

Cole's legs were the first to buckle, but he didn't hit the ground. Acacius was by his side in an instant, one arm weaved carefully around his waist to support his weight and keep him more or less upright. The other hand came to rest on the back of his head, guiding it until his cheek was resting against his captors shoulder as his eyes fluttered, his mind trying to force himself to stay awake. That small part, struggling to keep cognitive thought running through his sleep laden mind.

"I just helped you, my sweet." Was the reply, the voice flowing past the fog in his head as if it wasn't even there, trying to keep wakefulness at bay. Acacius's voice was clear, perfectly so. The clearest thing in the whole room. "I can't have you worried, you see? Constantly alert for any opportunity to escape, ruining my plans, you don't want that, do you?"

Cole finds himself tuning in to the sickly sweet voice, his head shaking in a silent no against the man's shoulder, before he caught himself, his mind snapping back to reality, but a second was enough to drive himself to speak around the forced slumber.

"Stop it."

"Stop what?" there was a small breath, almost a laugh, but not quite there. The hand on his head moved lightly, fingers carding back and forth through his hair in a rhythmic fashion. Cole wanted nothing more than to reach up, drag the touch away and beat the guy until he was a blackened grease smear on the floor, but he couldn't make his body move.

He could just feel it relax more and more, the tenseness of his muscles falling away as his body collapsed, resting fully against the sorcerers chest.

"Sleep, my treasure.” The voice almost echoed around his head, the words blanketing, all-encompassing. “We will be wed before the week is done. You're safe here, this is the best place you could be."

His eyes slipped closed, body slumping entirely in the man's hold, breathing slowed in the throes of the forced rest.

"Sleep."

Cole's mind finally gave in.

#ninjago #lego ninjago #cole #cole brookstone #cole ninjago #angst #cole ninjago angst #fic #magic #this was originally a small idea but we all know what happens #long post #mcfanely writes #mcfanely #tw mind control #Treasure AU #mcfanely aus

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pictureamoebae · 3 years

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hi, hope you're well! i really love your clear bloom preset and i've followed your installation tut to a t (as far as i know - first time reshade user here). i promise i've scoured your faq for some answers but i'm still a little lost, sorry! i'm just wondering generally which boxes i should have ticked in the first tab of reshade's gui (mxao? depth of haze??). i'm also having trouble disabling edge scrolling... every time i do, my game crashes on me :( please help!

Hi anon, I saw your second ask saying you’d managed to disable edge smoothing (I’m guessing you meant edge smoothing rather than edge scrolling, because they’re different things, and it’s smoothing you need off, not scrolling).

When you install Clear Bloom and select the Clear Bloom preset all the core effects you need should be ticked already for you. Those are the ones you’ll want to keep on for the most part during gameplay. Any others are additional and for setting up screenshots.

I included in the download a file called CLEAR BLOOM RESHADE READ ME.txt. In there you’ll find some examples I set out of which shaders I turn on in certain situations, including which LUTs I choose from the MultiLUT shader depending on the world I’m in. These should give you a helping hand, but you can experiment turning different things on and off as you see fit -- although I do recommend keeping those core effects turned on all the time because they create the foundation upon which everything else works.

Clear Bloom is definitely what I’d consider to be an intermediate to advanced preset, which requires a certain feeling of gung-ho confidence to get stuck in and turn things on and off and experiment. I’m sure newcomers to ReShade can still get use out of it, but I understand it can seem overwhelming. I recently took about 18 months off the game and even I had the hardest time trying to remember how the actual heck Clear Bloom works when I came back! I’m still not sure I’ve got it right, but to me that doesn’t really matter, because as long as I have that foundational core I can play around with all the other shaders and settings as much as I want to get something I’m happy with, and I encourage everyone else to do the same.

After all that blather, key shaders I will almost always turn on when I’m taking screenshots are MXAO, qUINT_Bloom (I change the exposure value of this depending on how much or how little I want the scene to be brightened), Depth Haze and Adaptive Fog (exteriors), Ambient Light. Reading my instructions file I see I also recommended turning off DPX in interiors and a handful of exteriors -- I realise now I am currently not using DPX at all in any of my screenshots, because I totally forgot how I used it before I took that mind-wiping break lol. So it’s really up to you.

Keep a backup of a freshly downloaded Clear Bloom.ini preset file in case you make changes and hate them and can’t remember how things were before. That way you can just swap in the backup and you’re back to the start again. I did not do that and ended up having to download my own damn preset. Don’t be like me. Be better.

I hope that’s somewhat helpful. Just take your time and have fun with it. There are no hard and fast rules. Use whatever you think looks best. If that ends up not always looking like my screenshots, well that’s absolutely fine. The preset is there for you to use as you see fit and to tailor to your own needs.

#reshade faq #clear bloom faq

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luciellebp · 4 years

Text

Is that LUCIELLE BEAUMONT-PETERS? Wow, they do look a lot like ROMANE IANNACCONE. I hear SHE is a NINETEEN year old FRESHMEN who are studying FASHION MODELING AND MERCHANDISING at Luxor University. Word is they are a(n) ARISTOCRAT student. You should watch out because they can be JUDGMENTAL and SECRETIVE, but on the bright side they can also be CALM and ADAPTABLE. Ultimately, you’ll get to see it all for yourself.

I’ve wanted to update Lucy’s bio in a While so you guys are getting this trash. It’s not super different or anything but there’s some new info!!

TW: DEATH AND MURDER in one of the first paragraphsof her background section

BACKGROUND

Lucielle was an accidental baby; a result of a brief on-and-off fling between her parents - Amelia Adams and Mikhail Kuzmin. Her mother kept her pregnany a secret - which wasn’t very hard considering Mikhail showed up randomly in town, didn’t always seek her out and the two of them rarely talked outside of the bedoom - and moved to a new place.

That, by no means, didn’t mean she wasn’t loved. Amelia absolutely adored her baby girl and spent as much time with her as possible in between her various shifts.

TW HERE!!!!

It was a gloomy day, the one when Amelia died. Baby Lucy was tucked away, sound asleep, when an angry Mikhail stormed the apartment. He was quick, quiet and brutal and he left quickly after the woman’s last breath left her lips. Amelia was found later that night, Mikhail’s name flashing on TV screens as well as the accusation of a few murders with a similar pattern. He was never caught.

END OF TW!!

Enter Kathryn (who was working on the case) and Renee. Recently married and excited to grow their family, Lucy was a perfect opportunity and the two of them ended up adopting her.

The two loved her very, very much and showered her with attention and affection. Whatever Lucielle wanted, she got. She was a quiet and smile-y child, obedient and following most orders she got - be it from a nanny, mommy or a tutor. She was raised to be a behaved little lady and holds her manners close to her chest.

Of course, thanks to Renee’s high status she was pushed into the spotlight from a pretty young age and so manners were very much necessary. She was going to make her mothers proud not stain their names or reputation. Banquets, fancy dinner parties, all the rich people shit, Lucy’s been attending them for a while and knows a lot of people in high places.

And then came Avery. Which Lucy - aged 13 at that time - was very unhappy about. She was used to being the center of attention, the only star on the sky that her mothers could see and suddenly?? She wasn’t?? Bratty mode was very much activated for a while and she wasn’t really nice with Avery for a bit which neither of her moms let pass. She earned herself a lot of scoldings and eventually realised Avery was staying for good and grew to like and love her. Even if she is incredibly exhausting at times.

Thanks to all the connections Renee had to the fashion industry being a famous designer and all, Lucielle was scouted to be a model at a young age. Kathryn was not for it, saying the girl was too young so she didn’t start until she was 14. She’s been signed with IMG for a while and she’s been doing some jobs on the side because Kathryn still insists that education should come first.

She’s incredibly guarded and it takes her a while to open up and care about someone. Or trust them. She’s always polite and nice on the outside but incredibly judgt and calculating on the inside. She’s just waiting for someone to slip up, to get close to her which she can then use as an advantage. Of course, there are some exceptions, and she has found that recently she’s became a lot more genuinely sympathetic and thirsty for true connections. Lowkey hates it, lowkey scared but she’s Fine if you ask her.

Really likes chess and enjoys debate a whole lot.

Also, she got her persian cat Cashmere for her eleventh birthday. She’s Lucy’s favorite always. And I’m sorry because she never, ever shuts up about her. Also, Cashmere is pure evil and I’m sorry for anyone who’s had to encounter her.

The topic of her birth parents always unnerved both Renee and Kathryn and they’ve kept it a secret. Lucy has been curious and she found out on her own a bit before the start of her senior year. Was terrified and sick to her stomach and didn’t tell anyone about it until, of course, it got revealed during prom. She doesn’t want to talk about it. Also she hates former Circle members with a burning passion.

Lucielle gets bored really easily. Of anything. People, objects, activities. It’s why she’s cheated in a bunch of her previous relationships and why Renee had to shove her in a career.

She can hold a grudge for a while. If Lucy’s pride has taken a hit, it’s going to take a long time for her to get over it. If she ever gets over it.

RANDOM FACTS

She really loves the sea/ocean, just water in general. Also really adores swimming. It’s relaxing af.

Doesn’t curse unless she’s really pissed off or drunk.

Also can’t usually stand a lot of affection unless it’s someone really close to her. But even then if it’s in public she’s very :/ about it.

Favorite dessert is anything with red velvet.

Bisexual & Biromantic. Has been out and proud for a long time.

Cannot stand social media but her mom and her PR agent make her go on there because she needs the exposure. Lucy is very grumpy about it. She’s kind of like a grandpa when it comes to almost anything but especiall technology lmao

Knows some nerdy shit because of the people she’s close to. A huge game of thrones fan and her favorite is Cerse

Gemini, Slytherin and an INTJ - an annoying, two-faced bitch!!!!!

Coping mechanisms include ignoring everything, bottling up, not dealing with it and sleeping so she can avoid stuff even more!! It is fun!! Except not at all!!

Fluent in English and French and lying her ass off

Also, she’s taking just the classes she needs for her major and not taking anything more than that so she can focus on modeling in the spare time

Can I just point out,,, she’s not a good person. She’s pretending and she tries to be sometime but like :///

CONNECTIONS

pre-existing

Family: Avery Beaumont-Peters (sister)

Currently Dating: no one

Ex: Ian Kim

Closest friends: Ches Elswood (wife), Sora Kim, Maia Croft, Alek Addington, Zander Driskell,

Friends/ acquaintances: Kenzie Horton, Balo Driskell, Savannah Grey, Madeleine Benoit, Leo Everett, Dawn Penning, Joshua Nahmias & others that I probably forgot

Disliked: Calliope Cruz, Lennon Winter, a whole lot of people honestly. Adrian Knox

wanted

more people for her to dislike pretty please, she needs it

also forever people who dislike her!! please!! she can treat people as objects and that’s horrible so !!!

exes and past hookups are also always negotiable

friends are important but also remember she’s a pain in the butt

#luxorintro #wonderful template by momoricons

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yoramkelmer · 3 years

Text

The rise and fall of the Twilight-Craze

Let me tell you about my first encounter with Twilight - it was a “read”-week in 6th or 7th grade, and I picked up a very new book at the library of my elementary school. So I started reading it. I remember reading the first chapters, but never finishing it. I remember how I found the protagonist to be very whiny, and very disrespectful too.

Also, at this point I also didnt know that this would be a vampire-novel, as the backcover of the book - this being the first danish translation/edition of the novel - never mentioned it.

Anyway, afterwards, I forgot about it pretty quickly.

Flashforward to a year later.

I´m over in Germany, visiting my grandmother, and I buy some books - the german translation of Twilight being among them - and then I start reading it later in the fall. While I did think that the name Stephenie Meyer sounded familiar, I could not remember why. At this point I should also mention that 6th and 7th grade was a very traumatising period for me, and I had by that point pretty much blacked much of that period out of my mind, focusing on the now and future. And yeah, I was 14, so there was still much to come.

Anywway, as I start reading the novel later in the fall, I suddenly remembered that one book I never finished back in 6th or 7th grade - and am kinda amused. Yeah, anyway, I still found Bella Swan to be a very whiny girl, and I actually liked the novel, and honestly did not think that much about it afterwards. Though I did learn not long after that a movie would come out later that year, I - while I was looking forward to it - did not imagine that it would start a big craze, that I later learned from the Wikipedia article of the South Park episode The Ungroundable to be named “The Twilight Craze”.

I enjoyed the movie, actually - I watched it with my best friend (who went on to become the biggest Twilight fan I know, at least for as long as the craze lasted) and it is a memory that I like to think back on. I still think that both Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson did a good job in these movies - though more on that later.

So, flash forward to the fall of 2009, where I am in Thailand with my parents. On the way to Thailand - as we went through Germany - I bought the subsequent books New Moon and Eclipse. I read these books very quickly, and my mom as well.

New Moon - and I´m talking about the novel here - did introduce some rather interesting ideas, such as the Volturi. One thing, however, already stuck me back then - it was the fact that Meyer completely distorted the actual folklore of an actual native american tribe, the Quileutes, for her own way, and it seemed really disrespectful back then already. And as for the Volturi, despite being mentioned early on, we didn´t really get that much from them - though as for the climax of the novel, I was pretty disturbed by the fact that the Volturi let in hundreds of tourists into their palace just to eat them after closing the doors. While that scenario is already pretty much horrifying, what really disturbed me was that Bella - and by extension, Stephenie Meyer herself - immediately forgot about it after it happened and moved on with the plot. That, and another thing - are we really gonna accept it as okay that one from Jacobs tribe physically hurt and mutilated his wifes face after wolfing out, because he feels sorry and he forgave her? It already seemed really wrong back then.

What I also noticed was the fact that Bella Swan essentially only hung out with Jacob so she could play with his feelings, and so she could get into dangerous situations so she could get these hallucinations of Edward. With that said - I also could not really see what was so special about the relationship between Bella and Edward.

Then I read Eclipse - and one thing stuck out to me there: it´s the fact that the mentioned backstories of the individual Cullens - Carlisles past with the Volturi, Rosalie seeking out and killing her rapists, Jaspers backstory from the american civil war (as I later learned from Das Mervins sporkings, she got a lot of stuff wrong there, to put it mildly), or how Alice was abandoned by her family in an asylum and pretended she was dead, where she ultimately got turned - all of these backstories are a hundred times way more interesting than the perks of being Bella Swan and her love life!

Also, I immediately knew that the vampire army was a work of Victoria, and that it was to kill Bella - only upon reading the sporkings by Das Mervin did I learn that it was supposed to be a “twist”.

On the way back from Thailand I bought Breaking Dawn shortly before leaving Germany, but I never finished it - you know why? Because some of my classmembers spilled the tea on the spoiler that Jacob imprints on Bellas daughter. I was just grossed out. I later learned that the book is what turned many fans off Twilight - and the imprinting thing was one of the reasons why, in many cases.

Anyway, then a few weeks after returning from Thailand, I went in to see New Moon with two of my best friends, and it is a memory that I cherish very much.

And that was the time when the Twilight Craze really, really went off - with all the cringeworthy “Are you Team Edward, or Team Jacob?” stuff, and how out of touch with reality some of the fangirls seemed - there were apparently some who really believed that Edward Cullen exists, and so much more. I still didnt think too much about it, as I had other things to look for.

Though - despite liking the movies and the books at the time - I really, really enjoyed a lot of the parodies on the Twilight Craze, like this one from Smosh. The thing is, that Twilight became the probably most parodied thing in the 2009-2010 period. And that may have been one of the things that killed the craze - but more on that later.

Then, in the summer of 2010 - one of the best summers of my life - I was in Miami with my family. And then my best friend and I got to watch Eclipse in a gigantic cinema in a very big mall in Miami Beach - that was unforgettable. And I also remember that I wasnt the only one who laughed over Taylor Lautners overacting. Good to know.

During that same summer, I remember then seeing a new book by Stephenie Meyer in the bookstores - “The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner”. As this was before my friend and I saw the movie, I myself did not think that much about it; but I then later realised that Bree was the girl killed by the Volturi at the end of Eclipse, and that the novel - as the title already states - was about her time with the army of newborns. That sounded like an actual interesting plot. Shortly before watching Eclipse, the trailer for “Vampires Suck” came out - and the trailer was very funny, way more funny than the actual movie.

So....Eclipse was a huge hit that summer. But you know what that also was? The end of the Twilight Craze itself. In fact, it can also be compared with another contemporary hit of the 2009-2010 period - Avatar. While that was the biggest hit of the winter of 2009-2010, as soon as spring started, everyone forgot about it. And while Eclipse itself got a lot of mixed reviews, like the preceding movies of the franchise, it simply was the end of the craze itself.

I think here are some of the factors:

Twilight was pretty much EVERYWHERE in the media in 2009-2010, not only from advertisement, product placements, and posters, but also from parodies, not to mention how often Twilight was mentioned in actual news broadcast. In other words, people got tired of it - not just the people who werent even fans of the franchise in the first place, but also more moderate fans, like I considered myself then. And yeah - now thinking back on it, I was also pretty tired of seeing Twilight everywhere even before Eclipse was released in the cinemas.

And another thing is this: The Second Life of Bree Tanner. While the novel was released in early June of 2010, mere weeks before the movie came out, it was very bestselling, because of the Twilight Craze. And the reason why it was released was most likely because even Stephenie Meyer herself had a feeling that the craze soon would end, and had to publish something Twilight-related in advance, so she could be talked about again. Officially, the novella started as a short story to tie in with her illustrated guide for Twilight.

I bought the book later that summer while in Germany - and I found it not very well written, and forgot about it very shortly afterwards. Even my friend found it forgettable. I recently read the sporking of the book on Das Mervin to be reminded of what actually happened - and boy, does it suck! And here is my point - many Twilight fans probably realised with that book that Stephenie Meyer isnt that good a writer. (A lot of people had the same reactions to “The Host” - including me, who never finished the novel because of that)

And then, as soon as the summer of 2010 was over, Twilight was over. People had enough.

I know that the final film was - because of Harry Potter - split in two parts (a decision that was continued when The Hunger Games were made into movies, and a decision that ultimately killed the Divergent franchise), and was released in the winter of 2011 and 2012. I watched both of them - and I was immediately struck by this in 2012: While there of course were trailers and posters for these films, there was simply not the same exposure to the franchise as back in 2009-2010.

And by the time of the release of Breaking Dawn part 2 in the winter of 2012, I had already been redpilled regarding Mary Sues, and had a field day of counting all the Mary Sue points in the movies.

Yeah, Bella Swan is one of the biggest Mary Sues in existence, and was created as a way of Stephenie Meyer wanting to live out an idealised version of her highschool years.

That, and Stephenie Meyer isnt that great a writer - just read the sporking on Das Mervin.

During the reading of the sporkings, I also realised the way how Meyer demonises every blonde - from Lauren to Rosalie, and how Leah Clearwater is demonised for being an independent woman who doesnt bow down to Bella Sue and who actually does something, unlike Bella Sue.

Now, onto the thing with Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. Both are very good actors, and I think it is sad to see how haunted they were in the past decade of Twilight. Many have accused Stewart of being a bad actress because of Twilight (not to mention that they haven´t seen her brilliant performance in Speak) - I disagree. Kristen Stewart showed what a spoiled, ungrateful and dull Sue Bella is, and Pattinson what a creepy, controllable Stalker Edward is. And I´m now especially happy to see how especially Pattinson is recovering now, as Kristen Stewart did get to prove herself in movies like Camp X-Ray.

Anyway, that was my rant on the Twilight Craze.

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ia21136melly · 4 years

Text

EVALUATION

DESCRIPTION

The main task was to pick a brief from the annual design competitions and complete it. I had chosen to do a Durex one revolving around sex and disability. It was nice to see as I had previously been talking to a friend about how I was tempted to do this task as my specialist project but I went a different route. The outcome was I missed the competition deadline due to misunderstanding when it had been extended too. I found out the day after it had closed that I had missed it. I was not bothered by this as I do not care for something that is like “work for exposure” type of tasks. Especially when these companies have millions of pounds and a whole team. From my discussions with employers they do not care if you won a competition more than they care about your ability to do the job they are after, working in teams, being up to date and so on. I was however concerned about failing the module due to not being able to enter. I emailed my tutor but never got a response but when checking I had all the work to submit I discovered our moodle have had an update which stated I wouldn’t fail.

My outcome was a mock-up drawing of a pop-up shop, an advert board and poster idea. I did not go too much into the exact details as my brief was wanting the concept and ideas more than they wanted examples of what they would look like. I also discovered a new way of working using the Kanban board method along side the pomodor method I was already using. I decided to place a 25 minute task on each post it note so that when it came to using the pomodoro method I always knew what I was doing. I found progressing through this module much easier once I started using these two combined.

FEELINGS AND THOUGHTS There was a lot of feeling throughout this module. I have been having trouble with some peers who have been judging me harshly due to my attendance and who generally have attitude towards me. I was going through a difficult patch mentally and physically with a few health flares. I managed to be hopeful at the start but that quickly dropped. Things then became waves of ups and downs, thinking I did well considering my shorter time to finish them, to confusion over how my work was misunderstood, to understanding why and realising I have misunderstood the brief, to feeling rather incapable of completing anything. There were many negative feelings towards the course and topic throughout too.

Before I was feeling excited for the project, I much prefer working of social change topics over selling products. That was back when my understanding was to sell that, I later realised it was still selling a product just in a different way. After I felt exhausted, the project, although short, was incredibly taxing for me. I struggled a lot with understanding and due to the stress load, ended up having little ideas flowing.

During the situation I kept thinking about how frustrated I was over not understanding the work task, when I thought I did I had learned that I in fact have not. I kept thinking that I was not cut out for this course. Once I got some better understanding of the task it did become a lot easier and I found things flowed better. Now I think I handled the situation incredibly well considering all I was going through. It may have not felt it at the time, but it is resilience training none the less. Learning how to not only balance but accept my limitation is critical if I am going to have sustainability within my academic life. I also think I could have done with having more support from staff members. Although I felt bitter about it during the time, I acknowledge I did not do the best job at continuously reaching out. I attempted once and then gave-up. I also forgot about our technician who I later learned offers fantastic advice and could have possibly helped me too. Because it was not technical issues, I was having difficulty with but the understanding I was not entirely sure who to go too about this. I think there is a lot I could have done differently, and I hope I remember to do them if I experience this again.

EVALUATION

I think my concept ideas worked well and was appropriate. I would have liked to have had time and skills to have made a 3D modelling of the pop-up shop idea, along with figures. My ability to finish the task despite challenges also went well.

I do not think my final design went well, I struggled with knowing how to present it. From the research I had done it appeared that a concept board does not follow a set pattern. I also think the quality is not as strong as it could be. I am hoping to develop my skills more so that it will not be as bad next time.

ANALYSIS

Digging deeper into understanding certain aspects of advertising is why the things that did go well, worked well. I struggled to understand things despite reading a lot about them. Usually when this happens it is because there isn’t a set route or rule to follow. It can take me some time to process/figure it out.

The things that did not go well fell down to a lack of understanding and skills. Being stuck in a negative mindset also played a big part in why things did not go as well as they could have. If I haven’t have given up I may have had more time to put time into developing ideas and skills.

A lot of knowledge came from a book called “The Advertising Concept Book by Pete Barry”. I found myself coming back to the book each time I felt stuck and unable to progress. Other resources include a youtube channel called “The Futur”.

CONCLUSION

Even though it was through many errors and overwhelming times, I learned a lot of valuable lessons around my design process and workflow. These have been developing more after each task and I really believe I have found a system that works well for me, especially with my limitations and fluctuation in my ability to work. It reduced the stress which will reduce the symptoms and it also makes completing my work more accessible during those times when my body feels that it is “not quite unable but not able”. I have learned that on those days I should limit my workload and not try to push past it. When I push past I end up needing additional days to recover and lose more time, this creates a very negative cycle which is difficult to get out of, especially with the added pressure of having four weeks to complete a module.

The situation could have been positive had more time gone into making sure I understood the task earlier on. Being given information I missed from medical appointment absence would have also benefited me. This could be via better information available on moodle or having a note taker in the lessons like it used to be the year prior. Having a better understand of how to implement the pomodoro and Kanban board techniques would have been most valuable in making the experience more positive, as they did towards the end.

Skills I will be needing to better handle these situations are assertiveness and stress management. With the short deadlines and not being fully informed from not being in, I found it difficult to complete the task. I spent a lot of time confused over what a concept was which resulted in my asking many friends and spending hours researching online and in books, to simply understand it. Had I had better assertive skills I would have told my tutor that the three examples they gave me did not make any sense and that they needed to explain it to me in a different way. I have always struggled with asking for help in an appropriate way. I often feel like a burden from needing things explaining differently. This is something I will continue to work on. Illustrator skills and knowledge of typography may have helped to reduce the time spent working which would have created less stress for the short time.

I could have expressed my difficulty more to my tutor and earlier, I tried too but experienced a negative vibe that I was being annoying and wasting their time. I could have also gone to our technician who also has dyslexia and may have been able to offer me advice or have been able to explain what it is in a more accessible way. When I become stress I typically withdrawal and shut down. Although this helps, it is not always the best option. Especially when I do not understand what work I am doing.I have still not discovered an effective solution for this. I am so used to masking that I don’t realize I am doing it at times.

ACTION PLAN

If I could do anything differently, knowing what I know now, I would have spent more time understanding the task and planning my workload. Because of the time limit and me already missing a week I was panicking to catch up. Not spending that time getting help to understand the module caused a lot of confusion and stress from the delay of understanding it and burning out. I would also have set up my work task using a combination of the pomodoro and kanban board technique.A lot of the time I realize I don’t know enough too late, so sometimes I may also think I am fine before later realizing I need more information on a particular task.

Other than to continue working on my program skills which are going to be a consistent, long term development. Skills to Further develop that will help me in future projects is further developing how I am using the pomodoro technique. I discovered this technique last semester and have been implementing it throughout all my work ever since. I have been having a lot of success using this technique. However, I found it difficult to adapt towards the longer more development tasks (such as creating posters/logos/other design aspects). Through trial and error, I started to get a good feel a on how to do this. While searching for productivity techniques I discovered something called the kanban board. It is commonly used within big teams on long term projects. I thought this would be a great skill to master, not just because it was helping my workflow, but it seems useful for my future careers.

To make sure I will act different next time, I will create a check list of things to follow at the start of each brief/project. The list will include empty slots for me to rephrase the learning outcomes and how I will be required to prove them. They will also have a copy of my design process to remind me of steps to take in case I face time that is overwhelming again. It will also have my 25-minute slots and work break-up plan so I can implement my two techniques right away. I would start using a white board I purchase towards the end of my module, which is going to be used for my kanban board. Also towards the end of the module I repurpose some draws to be where I kept all my project notes. Prior to this I had a folder and A3 draw but I didn’t keep everything together. Depending on what room I was working in, my work would be left there. Last semester I was finding work I hadn’t submitted and forgot I had done. With the new draws set up I can keep all sizes of work in a draw for each module, including any reference books and other useful items related to the module. By doing all the above I won’t have to think and when I experience difficulty focusing, brain fog or other side effects of my conditions which impact my studies, I will be able to focus on one small 25-minute task at a time. My work will hopefully not end up lost and all over the place but instead be easy to access. I could even talk to my tutors ahead of time, share my plan and explain that I will be able to preform better if I was given the time to allow myself to set-up how I am going to tackle a project. Maybe they could give me time to sit with the brief before our class so I can already have it written up and ready to do the class task.

#evaluation

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alexanderwrites · 7 years

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Hack Job: Why Were Hacker Movies Ever A Thing?

Lately i’ve been thinking about that weird and almost completely failed subgenre of movie that attempted to light up the LCD screens of our hearts, but instead faded like a broken computer screen: the hacker film. Now, I could ask what good the sub-genre has ever done for us, but the answer to that is clear and just a few inches above this block of text. The genre birthed this iconic Matthew Lillard role from the movie Hackers, in which he plays a (wait for it!) hacker named...erm...Cereal Killer. Because....he likes Cereal? Sure, lets go with that! He’s a character described by June Diane Raphael on an episode of the podcast How Did This Get Made? as “Disgusting”, and she is not completely wrong. He is disgusting, bizarre and the strangest character Lillard has played, and i’m including Shaggy in the live action Scooby Doo films. He’s a character that must be experienced, and once experienced, never forgotten. I mean - you’ve seen what he fucking looks like.

But my point remains: outside of Cereal Killer (I am bolding his name because he is an Important Man), the genre has offered up very little to the world. I admittedly know nothing at all about hacking, and I don’t care at all about Hacking, like, i’d presume, 90% of people currently residing here on earth. But I cannot imagine that people who love Hacking (or Hacker Fuckers, if you will) queuing up to see Hackers, a film that thinks this is what the internet looks like:

Now, i’m no city-slickin’ mouse-clickin’ hacker, but I don’t think that’s what the internet looks like. I could be wrong, and character actor Fisher Stevens (I was about to write “beloved” character actor, but then I remembered Short Circuit) could be skating through a flashing pillar of internet right now. It’s a cool thought! Hackers came along in 1995, when future optimism was higher than it had been in years, as everyone believed the tech-bubble would never burst (spoiler alert: it did!) and that the new millennium would bring a world of positive changes and possibilities. The poor, innocent souls of 1995 could never have possibly imagined the true horrors waiting for them on the other side of the millennium...

But before Fred Durst became a thing in a hat that you had to look at, technology was booming, affordable and exciting. You got transparent Macs that allowed you to see through into the mechanical nonsense inside it. The new fangled e-mail gave us (I don’t know why i’m saying “us”. I was 3 years old in 1995. Babies don’t get emails) all the opportunity to open your email and then close it again as many times as you liked! So this is what producers saw when they started making movies like Hackers. They put their strongest marketing minds together and came up with “People got computers now. Make comPUTER FILM!”. Those wild bastards actually went and did it! And weirdly, Hackers was kinda ahead of its time. It might’ve been wildly inaccurate in almost every possible way, but it paved the way for a wave of (well, like 3) films. The Matrix wouldn’t be released for another 4 years, and Swordfish a further 2. If it did incite a trend, it was the only trend started by Director Iain Softley, his later film K-Pax tragically failing to kick start a new genre of films in which Kevin Spacey eats bananas with their skins still on.

Good stuff! Hackers does feel like a film that is unsure of whether it’s trying to replicate fads or start them off. I mean, characters rollerblade everywhere for no apparent reason in the film. That might be something Hackers do? I’ve never seen Mr Robot, so I cannot categorically say that Rami Malek doesn’t rollerblade his way around town like a Starlight Express extra who really hates computers. But I doubt it. So with the rollerblading, and the way....ugh...Cereal Killer dresses, it seems like the film is offering you up its own funky ideas that you could follow on from if you want to get murdered on the streets. Did its aesthetic style have influence? Was the game Jet Set Radio from 2000 and its rollerblading theme influenced at all by Hackers? Did Eminem see Johnny Lee Miller’s bleached blonde hair in the film (quick deeply important side note: his character is named Dade. DADE.) and think “huh. that would really compliment my insufferable personality!”? We’ll never know. The film is a weird exercise in style and trends, and the soundtrack, crammed with The Prodidgy and Underworld, is proof that at least the soundtrack department had its finger on the pulse. And, it could be argued that the film’s costume department at least came up with some creative cyber-punk clothing, and were bold enough to make Penn Jillette look like this:

The thing is, I liked the weirdness of it all, I like this misfires in capturing modern life, and inaccuracy doesn’t bother me really if a film is fun enough. I’m not a stickler for realism. I didn’t sit down to Face/Off and complain that it’s totally unbelievable that John Travolta is a human person. That’s not the issue. The issue, really is that with all the giant screen Playstations, pounding trance tracks and references to Coca Cola (weird, I thought Mountain Dew would be the Hacker’s choice), the film is in troubled water because of the fact that Hacking is unbelievably, deeply fucking boring. It is not interesting in seeing someone go clickety clack on a keyboard and make occasional faces to indicate that “oh no! the mainframe is busting my chops!” or “Huzzah! I clicked the mouse really fast just now!”.

Thankfully, the film has some fairly decent editing which intersperses the clickety-clacking with some long exposure, sped up shots of New York City just in case you forgot it was the 90′s. The fact that they need to cut away to exciting, zooming shots that have nothing to do with anything highlights the fact that the Director and Editor knew exactly what i’m talking about: HACKING IS FUCKING BORING (if you’re a hacker reading this, please don’t hack me). And they’ve built an entire film around it! A whole nonsensical plot which involves (as far as i can remember) big ships and evil corporations that want to sink the big ships is built on Hacking. Thank god this film is so wildly ridiculous, which keeps it from being entirely boring. It’s smart in that it knows to not make the film actually about hacking, but then you kind of ask yourself the question: why is this film about Hacking at all? Why is it called Hackers? Maybe a better name would’ve been ‘Bladin’ Teenz’, as an ode to their endless rollerblading. It’s a fun film, but a dumb film and proof that films entirely about hacking cannot really work.

The Matrix was a wise film. Exploiting that hip, late-90s techno excitement that everyone was buzzing over, it featured a hacker at its centre who really doesn’t do much hacking at all. In fact, Morpheus might as well have said “You Hack? Dude fucking grow up. Come on, i’ll make you a treat”. Sure, you’ve got the iconic green gibberish that turns up on the computers and would inspire a million shitty screensavers, but again the hacking is intercut with other action going on in the film. You have characters typing away and yelling shit like “I’m nearly in!” or “i’m not nearly in!” or “I am unsure of whether I am, in fact, in, nearly in, or not nearly in!”. But that is manageable and minimal, and in the end there’s so much more to remember about The Matrix that I don’t think anyone, when asked what it’s about, would say “Oh it’s about Keanu Reeves hacking on his dell”. It understood this caveat, and created its own style which would influence every single music video ever produced over the next 5 years.

These are screenshots from the video for Don’t Wanna Let You Go by 5ive, a very bad UK Boy-band that had 4 singers and 1 rapper, all of whom it’s safe to assume have passed away.

The Matrix had the style, and the smarts to sidestep bland hacking scenes. You know what film doesn’t understand that hacking is boring? Fucking Swordfish.

Fucking Swordfish. A film so aesthetically ugly and repulsive in every way that it does the unthinkable and makes you hate Hugh Jackman. But it commits the biggest sin of all by giving John Travolta a teeny tiny beard - a decision which we still feel the fallout from today, whenever a new red carpet photo arrises of John’s new chin abomination.

Looking like a cup of concentrated Michael Bay piss, the film leans heavily into stylishness - or lack thereof. Hugh Jackman is basically...sigh...DADE in the movie, and Travolta is regularly outfitted with funny sunglasses. It borrows a lot from Hackers, but while that had a naive, 1995 goofy charm, Swordfish is an aggressively stupid and oblivious movie, that gives us a LOT of Hacking. Like...so much Hacking. The Most Hacking. Oh, The Fucking Hacking. Its a reminder of just how boring Hackers or The Matrix could’ve been if they’d fallen into the wrong hands, and a big, horribly colour-corrected reminder that films about hacking really aren’t the best. Instead of cutaways of cityscapes, Swordfish tries to build the tension during one hacking scene in the grossest way possible: by having Hugh Jackman’s character receive forced fellatio while he works, and while John Travolta smiles. It doesn’t make a boring scene exciting, it makes a boring scene fucking disgusting (the movie’s grossness doesn’t stop there. Halle Berry was heavily pushed into taking her top off in the movie, and promised extra money if she did it.). The Hackers method of randomised cutaways feels a million miles away during these scenes, and you will be willing to pay any earthly sum to make the scene unfolding in front of you stop. Maybe that’s how hackers should make their money from here on in: stop hacking, and just start blackmailing people by forcing them to watch Swordfish. Fucking Swordfish.

The movie was also a bit of a death knell for a subgenre that never really took off. People realised “Oh, this is dull and crap to watch!” when it came to hacking, and technology moved on rapidly that there was a lot more to do with it than watch some guy slapping the keys of his iMac. I find it a really interesting subgenre to look back at, because i’m a huge fan of outdated technologies, fashion styles, turn of the millennium culture, and really quite poor films (besides The Matrix which holds up nicely). Hollywood has tried to make a manner of subjects interesting. Stock markets. Fishing. White people who buy zoos. Some work, some don’t, and it’s all about the way the subject is handled. Because of their reliance on technology, these hacking films feel so dated that maybe Hollywood doesn’t want to risk dipping its toes back into the cyberwaters again. I kind of hope they don’t, because I would literally rather never see a film again than have to even know that a film about Anonymous is being made. I don’t want an ‘edgy’ modern movie that’s made for Banksy to watch while he plunges his hands down his pants and goes to town. I want silly old Cereal Killer and towers of nonsense computer language dammit! I want rollerblading, coke-drinking cyberpunks! Oh well. Whatever happens to the genre, at the very least, we’ll always have Dade and The Gang....

#hackers #johnny lee miller #matthew lillard #the matrix #swordfish #technology #film trends #film

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nananaptime · 7 years

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Green-eyed monster

Request: Reader surprise coups at a fansign bc they haven’t met for a while (work) but other members keep calling for reader, getting reader’s attention totally forgetting about coups so he got jelly.

Killing my best friend some more <3

Masterlist Rules

(Source)

Requested

Genre: Flufufufufufufuf

Word count: 1 785

Summary: Even leaders can be insecure sometimes....

I was surrounded by sweaty bodies everywhere around me, some pushing, some experiencing the same agony that I did, especially in the natural warmth we were bathing in. many of the bodies around me were decorated in paint, they had either written their bias’ name or the whole group. Nonetheless, I was one of the few that didn’t even look like a fan. Not because I wasn’t one, because I was, but because I didn’t have to prove to these boys that I love them with paint, they already know it.

The feeling of dying was creeping in on me when the line finally started moving. They had taken their time with letting everyone in and were a little bit behind schedule but that didn’t surprise me. Either Seokmin or Soonyoung or maybe even Seungkwan were probably causing the delay by fooling around like they normally did. I felt everyone around me, including myself, take a breath of relief once we entered the venue where the fan meeting would be held. It was like walking into a cool breeze compared to the warmth of the outside.

None of the boys knew I was here, not even my brother Jihoon. They had just finished their Asian tour and was ending it with a fan meeting in the same place they started. The tour had lasted three months and I was kind of missing my annoying, hard-working brother. I also missed my boyfriend, whom I would be seeing today too, and it was my personal goal to surprise him the most. Everyone was now sitting down in the available seats and some, for example, me, had to do with sitting on the floor. After a couple of minutes of waiting, they finally emerged from the ends of the stage and took their spots. They were sitting down in order of age. So at one end, we had Chan and on the other, we had my lovable boyfriend, Seungcheol. After their original introduction, the fans were allowed to start lining up and get their things signed and turning their dreams into reality.

It was my intention to spend as much time as I could with them so I allowed everyone else take the places in front of me, causing me to be the last one in line. The boys were as happy and polite as ever, however the same could not be said for some of the fans. While most of the people here made it their mission to be nice and not cause any harm to the boys, some others didn’t exactly care for the fact that the members were human and not robots. The guards had to escort at least five fans for being either rude and way too biased or overall expecting too much and getting aggressive once those expectations weren’t reached. The annoyance bubbled up inside me as soon as the first girl overstepped the boundaries. Said fan had expected to have more time chatting with Hansol but when she was told to move on, the aggression displayed was directed at poor Seungkwan, who had been waiting patiently at Hansol’s left side. Throwing down the photocard she wanted signed on the table in front of him, the fan scoffed and glared at him, leaving Seungkwan thoroughly confused and incredibly hurt. This kind of behaviour could result in idols believing they’re not good enough for the industry and leave a scarring impact on said idol. It didn’t take long before the guards escorted the girl away and the fan meet progressed as if nothing had happened. Minghao leaned towards Seungkwan to check if he was okay. Seungkwan’s nod indicated that he was and he waved Minghao’s concern away as he turned his focus to another fan that now sat in front of him.

Within the next hour, there were numerous fans who either overstepped or were close to overstepping the boundaries and I noticed the members getting more and wearier. Joshua, who was sitting on the other end of the table, repeatedly rubbed his eyes while trying to stay awake and even though he was so out of it and tired he still put on a big smile and greeted the fans with cheerfulness. Finally, the boys started to appear closer than before and I knew that I didn’t have to wait for so long to greet my friends once again. As soon as I stepped into view of Chan he instantly saw me, I have never seen him so shocked before and he almost forgot about the fan in front of him. He quickly signed her stuff while making some small talk and when she continued down the line to Hansol, Chan discretely shoved his elbow into Hansol’s ribcage, successfully gaining his attention and gestured towards me. Hansol had the exact same reaction as the maknae but was faster in shifting his concentration towards the fan. I laughed at their reactions and followed the movement of the queue. After a couple of minutes, I stood in front of the maknae.

“Y/N!!! What are you doing here? You surprised me.” The smile didn’t leave his face for one second as he spoke to me.

“That was kind of the point.” He laughed at that and I handed him the photocard portraying him. He gave me a joking look but signed it nonetheless. “What? I need to seem like a fan in order to avoid exposure.”

“Wha, when did you become so smart?” Oh yeah, now that we’re supposed to look like only an idol and a fan I’m not allowed to jokingly hit him. He knew that so he poked out his tongue at me and shooed me along to Hansol who also had his iconic smile on his face.

“Coups hyung is going to die.” He said as he signed the photocard.”How did you…”

“Omg Y/N!?” That, ladies and gentlemen and other, was Boo Seungkwan freaking out and getting so shocked that he almost fell out of his chair. I laughed at him and realised that the surprise aspect of this whole thing now was ruined. I could feel the eyes of the other boys and I didn’t even have to look at them in order to realise that they were trying not to blow my cover even though that was too late by now. The fans knew that I was related to Jihoon but most of them didn’t know what I looked like and none of them knew that I was Seungcheol’s significant other.

“Hi, Boo Boo,” I said as I moved on to him. He stood up and gestured for me to come closer, indicating that he wanted a hug. With a smile coating my lips I leaned across the table and wrapped my arms around his upper back.

“I’ve missed you so much, I need someone who can handle all of this…” He gestured towards himself. “… and they can’t.” He pointed at the other guys. Talking with the three youngsters had taken a while so I was the only one left in the venue so the guys had the freedom of rising from their seats and embrace me in a group hug.

“Y/N-yah, only you would surprise us like this.” Mingyu.

“Why would you attack us with these feels, I can’t handle it.” Soonyoung.

“Could all of you disperse so I can catch up with the only family member I actually ever see?” The guys were quick to move since Jihoon had a guitar available and anything could happen, but when he emerged from behind them he was wearing a huge smile and hugged me like his life depended on it. With a small laugh, I returned the hug.

“Have you had a good tour?” He nodded and dived into a story about how the fans were so supportive and that the new song was a huge hit and other weird but not unusual things the boys had done. Between all the fits of laughter and hugs I realised that one of the boys were missing, the most important one.

“Hey, where’s Cheol?” At that question, the guys looked around for him and when they didn’t see him anywhere they shrugged their shoulders. Concern replaced the happy feeling within me so I excused myself in order to go look for him. I made my way towards the back of the room where the idols were able to get their makeup done and get ready for either fan meets or concerts. The guards recognised me instantly and let me in. The room was not the cleanest one, with makeup covering most areas and clothes lying scattered all over the floor you would think a rainbow tornado just made a visit. In the midst of all the chaos sat my one and only boyfriend on the couch. His concentration was on his phone where he was playing some sort of game. As I closed the door he looked up at me but looked down again just as fast. What was that about? Quietly I sat down beside him and waited for him to talk which, eventually, he did.

“Why are you not out there having fun with everyone else?” He still didn’t look at me.

“Because I wanted to be with you but you weren’t there so I looked for you.” He scoffed at that and still kept his gaze on the device in his hands.

“You didn’t seem to be that interested in me when I actually was present.” That’s when I realised what was going on. He was jealous.

“I’m sorry, everyone got so excited and everything happened at the same time, it was kind of hard to get to you.” He glanced at me but he still didn’t budge with the jealous attitude. I shuffled closer and wrapped my arms around him while laying my head on his shoulder.

“You know I love you right? You and only you. Nothing will change that.” My words forced a smile to erupt on his face and he couldn’t stop himself from giggling at what I said. I smiled as I knew he was convinced. He shifted himself and wrapped his arms around my torso, making me lift my head from his shoulder and meet his gaze.

“I know and I’m sorry I get so easily jealous, I can’t help it, it feels like they’ll take you away from me.”

“That will never happen.”

“I know.” A small smile appeared and he pecked my lips. “And I love you too.”

We didn’t leave that room for almost two hours and we were not disturbed. How? You may wonder.

Well.

The guard was nice enough to lock the door.

#seventeen #seventeen scenario #kpop #kpop scenario #svt #carat #s.coups #seungcheol #choi seungcheol #music #love #fanfic #fanfiction #runninghoseok

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splashrollstumble · 5 years

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Europe Cycle Tour: Sweden (Part 1)

I was excited going into my cycle tour of Sweden because I had heard about their law that allows anyone to camp anywhere in nature for free. The law is called ‘Allemansvretten’ and roughly translates to ‘all man’s freedom’. It has certain conditions that are fairly obvious – you can’t camp on (or too near to) private property, you can only stay a few days and you must leave the area clean. Those making use of the law must abide by its conditions because Sweden is one of the cleanest countries I’ve ever seen.

However, having heard about a law and knowing how it works in practice are two different things, and I was a bit apprehensive about just how lenient this law is. Could I really just pull in and pitch up my tent wherever I wanted without being asked to move on? I was about to find out…

Day 1 – Stockholm to Soldetalje

I awoke in my overpriced Stockholm hostel ($30) ready to escape into the beautiful, and most importantly free, countryside. I spent the past week on a very expensive and boozy cruise through the Baltic peninsula and desperately needed a few cash-saving days of sobriety.

I had been raining heavily that weekend so I bought a rain suit and wrapped all my bags in plastic before heading out. However, by the time I got to the outskirts of the city, it was starting to clear. My first stop was a Decathlon just outside Stockholm where I hoped to get my bike serviced. Upon arrival, I proudly informed the store attendant that I had purchased my bicycle at a Decathlon in India over a year ago and ridden it through seven African countries. He looked disinterested and told me the bike mechanic wasn’t in yet.

Disheartened, I shopped around for a tent and some waterproof pannier bags, convinced I would be spending the next for months cycling in rain. Eventually, the bike mechanic arrived but told me they were booked up that entire week for services. He was equally disinterested in my global cross-country cycle expedition on a Decathlon-built bike that wasn’t designed to do more than collect groceries from the store.

I packed all my stuff into my new panniers and decided to see if any bike stores in the next town could help me out. Since rebuilding my bike in Stockholm after the flight it wasn’t changing gears properly and just needed a service in general after four months crossing Africa. I soon arrived in the next town of Soldetalje, following Sweden’s intricate but confusing bicycle paths all the way.

In Soldetalje I found a bike shop and the mechanic said he could have it done by tomorrow. I told him that would be fine and asked if there is anywhere to camp. People don’t usually camp in or around cities but Soldetalje benefited from a large forest on a hill right in the middle of it, so he told me that should be fine. I left the bike with him, took what I needed and headed into town to buy a simcard and grab some food. I got a simcard fairly easily at a small shop and topped up 3GB of data for 100 krona (€10).

I then checked out the town and ended settling at a familiar spot, a Subway sandwich shop, where I ate and used the wifi. I realised I was still wearing my cycling shorts so decided to change in the toilets. They only had a single toilet and stupidly I forgot to lock the door, so just as I had pulled down my cycle shorts and was bending over with my ass facing the door, somebody opened it! They must have gotten a terrible shock. Needless to say, I got the hell out of there pronto before someone called the police and reported me for indecent exposure.

I decided to check out the forest on the hill, called ‘Kussens Backe’, or Cousins Hill, and discovered its quite a popular after-work running area. I wondered if I would be able to find a quiet and hidden place to camp. The South African in me couldn’t shake the feeling that if somebody saw me setting up camp they may come back later in the night and try to rob me. Looking back now I realize I was more likely to get offered some coffee and cake than get robbed!

I decided to go work a bit at another nearby restaurant and wait until after dark. Little did I realize that the sun only sets at about 11pm in Sweden at this time of year, so I had a bit of waiting to do. Eventually, around 10pm I decided the park should be empty and I headed back. My suspicions were confirmed and the park was deserted, most likely because it was now freezing cold by this time. I quickly pitched my tent in a secluded area and turned in for the night.

Day 2: Soldetalje to somewhere in the countryside

Unfortunately, I didn’t get much sleep since the sun awoke me at 3am! I suddenly realized why the Decathlon had such a large stock of black-out tents. It never gets dark in this crazy country! I tried to get back to sleep but mostly just lay down for another two hours before packing up and heading down the hill to find coffee.

Nothing was open yet so I sat outside a cafe until they opened and then I promptly left upon discovering their coffee is €3.50 a cup! I sat on some benches at a nearby cafe advertising €1 coffee and did some work while waiting for it to open. Eventually, the owner arrived, opened up and promptly shouted at me to get away, even bringing out a hose for added intimidation. Clearly, he thought I was some kind of laptop-using homeless person with all my bags.

I packed my shit quickly, flipped him the bird and then continued on towards the shop where I had left my bike to get fixed. Fortunately, I found a nice cafe on the way which did bottomless coffee for €2 and had some cheap sandwiches, so I had breakfast and worked there for a few hours until it was time to get the bike.

Unfortunately, the bike shop turned out to be a dud, and they barely did anything to my bike. All they did was replace the gear cable and realign the gears – I was expecting a full service. He even forgot to fix my right brake which I told him was loose. So that was a waste of €30! Long story short, Soldetalje is a shithole, don’t go there.

I cycled off towards a nearby store to buy some camping gear and food and then cycled out of town, happy to see the last of that place. Town quickly gave way to the countryside and I enjoyed the decent roads with a wide shoulder and minimal traffic as lakes and forests passed beside me. Eventually, I had forgotten all about Soldetalje and as the evening drew near I began looking for a camping spot. This turned out to be easier said than done.

As I turned down a side road to find a lake I suddenly got a puncture on my front tyre. It was quite strange as my Schwalbe tyres are practically bulletproof and I couldn’t find any thorn in the tyre. I did find a small split in the side, though, and fixed it quickly enough with a patch and then headed off again. Unable to find any decent lake or grassy area I settled for hiding down a dirt path in small patch of forest.

As soon as I stopped, thousands of mosquitos surrounded me and started sucking the very lifeblood out of my tired soul. Wonderful. I carried mosquito spray 5000 kilometres across Africa and barely used it, and now I need it more than ever! I quickly set up the tent, jumped inside with my stuff and managed to get it closed with only one ill-fated mosquito sneaking inside. After splattering him, I cooked some tasteless tomato pasta and got to bed.

Day 3: Random camp spot to Stavsjo

Cleverly using a thing to cover my eyes, I managed to sleep until about 6 am. I packed soon after a quick cup of coffee and headed off towards Norrkoping, my next destination where I had arranged to stay with someone from the cycle touring app Warmshowers (like Couchsurfing). The route was relatively uneventful as I cycled along back roads and through farms and fields. Towards the afternoon my left knee started to get quite sore so I slowed down and took it easy.

I reached the town of Stavsjo in the early afternoon and decided to get some lunch, rest my knee and do some work. After a few hours I tried to cycle again but my knee was still quite bad and the evening was approaching. I messaged the Warmshowers guy and said I’ll rather stop here the night and could hopefully still stay with him the following night.

Using ‘satellite’ view on Google maps, I managed to find a lovely spot next to a lake to camp for the night. Although it was on a walking track, I barely saw or heard anybody passing until late in the night when somebody ran very close by my tent but didn’t stop to bother me.

Day 4: Stavsjo to Norrkoping

Since it was only about 10km’s to Norrkoping I was in no hurry to rush off. I had a few coffees around my beautiful campsite and waited until the sun was quite high in the sky and morning cold had worn off. Eventually, I packed and headed off on a slow cycle. Along the way, I found an awesome viewpoint and took some pictures overlooking the ocean.

Arriving in Norrkoping around lunchtime, I found my host Emil’s house easily enough and met him, his wife and their toddler. After some they kindly shared their lunch with me, we headed out to check out the town. Norrkoping is built upon a complex water system that was one of the oldest operating hydroelectric power stations in the country until it was recently upgraded. Lots of the old construction remains, making for a beautiful old town built around a canal system and man-made waterfalls.

I bought a few extra pieces of equipment I needed and then we headed back for dinner at theirs. Emil offered to introduce me to a Swedish sauna, which inexplicably every building in Sweden has included as default. I was relieved when he told me to put on swimming trunks and we headed to his buildings roof-top sauna with a few beers. The experience was actually really cool as I’m not usually a fan of public saunas, but having the whole space to ourselves to drink some beers and chat was a nice change.

This was actually my first time as a Warmshowers guest and I was amazed at how welcoming and hospitable complete strangers can be. That evening after a nice dinner, Emil and I went out to town for a few beers and chatted about football, cycling and my life growing up in Cape Town.

Day 5: An awkward day in Norrkoping

My knee was still hurting in the morning and the night before Emil had offered to let me stay another night, so I told him I would. Unfortunately, I don’t think he had expressly discussed this with his wife so I may have caused an expected exchange between them. I didn’t understand what they were saying but it seemed awkward, even though they both said it was fine. I probably should have just left but then it may have made her feel bad so, unsure what else to do, I just kept quiet and stayed.

We all visited a beautiful nearby lake together which they had probably planned to do alone as a family that day. Either way, everyone seemed happy enough so I just went along with it. We swam briefly in freezing cold water and then hiked a nearby mountain that is clearly very popular with rock climbers.

Feeling bad for overstaying my welcome I stupidly offered to cook everyone dinner, as if my cooking would somehow make things better. Foresight lacking, I headed out to the shops and bought some lasagna sheets, butter, CRAZY EXPENSIVE beef (€10), cheap low-alcohol beers (50c), normally priced cheese (€2) and tinned tomatoes.

Back at their apartment, I placed myself in front of the stove promising my poor hosts the best lasagne they’ve ever had. Within minutes I had burnt the butter and set off a fire alarm that automatically alerts the fire department, so they had to call and tell them it was just an idiot homeless cycle-tourist who had forgotten how kitchens work.

Crisis averted, my long-suffering hosts somehow allowed me to continue my rampage of destruction and I managed to cobble together a barely-passable form of Italian cuisine that I feel unqualified to call lasagne. They assured me it was lovely in that special way that only parents with children are able to do. Needless to say, we all got to bed early and I made my thanks/apologies and departed early the next morning.

Day 6: Norrkoping to Gamleby

I cycled southeast from Norrkoping towards Valdemarksvik, a small coastal town where I hoped to find a pub playing the Liverpool – Spurs Cup final that night. The route took me along some lovely forested lanes and a town bizarrely called Tindered where I would have stopped if they had a pub with a TV.

Arriving at Valdermarksvik by early afternoon I quickly discovered they wouldn’t be showing any football in this tiny fishing village. After some lunch and a nap in a park, I continued on to Gamelby which Google Maps promised at a bowling alley and sports bar. On arrival, however, Gamelby was a literal ghost town, with the bowling alley long-closed and dilapidated.

I realized my quest was doomed and resigned myself to following updates of the score on my phone. I found a lovely quiet little spot on the river mouth, set up camp and made dinner. I briefly attempted to fish with a fishing line and hook that Emil had kindly gifted me but without proper bait, I didn’t have any luck. I ended up eating pasta and tomato sauce again.

Day 7: Gamleby to Oskarshamn

Heading south from Gamleby I discovered a strange wooden troll outside the town of Vastervik and decided to cycle onto a small, dirt forest road to see what I could find. After about 20 kms this quickly turned into a disaster as the path degenerated into a sandy, overgrown scrub that was impossible to cycle on. Too far in to turn back, I pushed my bike for a few kms until a more cyclable terrain reappeared.

I passed a shooting range which inexplicably faced ON to the road but fortunately was empty and then managed to rejoin the main tar road. I got back on the highway and road along in the fairly decently sized shoulder until I was almost in a small town called Oskarshamn.

Once again, Google Maps’ satellite view showed me a nice, discreet bit of lakeside forest that I could reach via a side road. I cycled off down there and found a quiet spot to camp. It was quite early so I spent some time exploring the forest and watching some fishermen who actually knew what they were doing.

Day 8: Oskarshamn to Kalmar

After leaving Oskarshamn I managed to find a decent bicycle path that weaved through the forests along the main road, keeping cyclists away from traffic. Unfortunately, it was also quite difficult to follow and often just ended without notice, leaving the cyclist abandoned in a random town. At one point while I was resting a young cyclist passed by and offered me an energy bar – I must have looked tired!

I decided to stop going on adventures and just get back on the highway and head straight to Kalmar where I was meeting friends I had met in Vietnam the year before. My knee was getting really sore again but all the strange and bizarre objects along the roadside in Sweden managed to keep me distracted long enough to arrive in Kalmar safely.

I pulled into a Burger King and spent a few hours working while waiting for my friends to get home from work. Oskar and Maria are a young couple who live in a lovely 1-bed flat in Kalmar and kindly let me crash on their couch and do some washing. We also visited the amazing Kalmar castle and the nearby island of Oland, accessible by a crazy long bridge.

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zarafoodrecipe · 5 years

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Moore 'filthy' about Hadley's handshake after 'bully' claim

"Mate, Im filthy about this," he told PS, when asked to explain how he came to shake Hadley's hand. "I was contemplating how to use the coffee machine. I heard ,'hi Andrew', turned around and was stunned to see him [Hadley] with his hand reaching for mine, so technically I did shake it." But according to Moore: "Clearly he did it to report in to Rothfield. He asked me how I was and then in the most awkward 60 seconds of my life tried to help me use the coffee machine before disappearing." "I was trying to work out his angle, obviously reporting that to Rothfield was it. "And Rothfield has been, as far as Im aware, the only one trying to find a positive story about the bloke."

Sickened: Andrew Moore has accused Ray Hadley of bullying.Credit:ABC Moore confirmed it was the first contact he had with Hadley, who has declined to comment on Moore, since making his explosive accusations on April 3. "Im fully aware there is a reason for every action he takes, just wish I had seen him coming," Moore lamented, adding that he had not been contacted by Rothfield before the story was published. "When my wife read the story online I felt sick." PS had revealed in 2015 that Moore had kept a 40 page file on Hadley during his time at 2GB and contemplated launching legal action, but opted to quit the station to take up his current position with the ABC. Moore, who is now the ABC's Grandstand presenter and has known Hadley for 35 years, told 7.30 earlier this month: "As a human being, I think he's a bully. I think he thrives on intimidation yelling and screaming." When Moore complained to 2GB management about treatment he'd received, he said the matter ended up in Hadley's hands and was used as material for his show. "What I thought were private emails [were] being referred to on air by Ray, laughing about them. Not mentioning me by name, but it was clear, at least to me," Moore said. Hadley told 7.30 that he didn't remember such an incident and went on air the next day to reiterate that following previous allegations of bullying his workplace behaviour had changed. However, as PS has already exclusively revealed, within days Hadley was the subject of at least two new allegations of workplace bullying, which had been formally filed with management and are alleged to have occurred in recent months. PS has confirmed these new claims, by existing staff at 2GB, are currently being investigated by an independent third party. Hadley, sporting a new beard, returned to the 2GB Sydney studios last week after having relocated to Queensland for three weeks. Insiders report neither Hadley nor management have made any comment officially or unofficially about the latest claims. Management at 2GB's parent company Macquarie Media which is 54.5 per cent owned by Nine, the owner of this masthead has repeatedly stood by its position that it is unable to comment on bullying claims as they are treated confidentially. Rocky time for Jacenko as attacks hit raw nerve With the cameras out in full force, Roxy Jacenko ensured she was all smiles as she attempted in vain to operate a dish scourer to scrub the "Roxy is a c---" graffiti plastered over her Paddington offices on Wednesday morning.

On the hunt: Roxy Jacenko is offering a $5,000 reward to find the culprits of her latest graffiti attack.Credit:Louie Douvis By lunchtime it was gone, but similar missives scrawled along the route Jacenko takes from her Bondi home to her Paddington offices were not quite as easy to remove, especially on the wall of busy Syd Einfeld Drive. Jacenko, who is offering a $5,000 reward to find the culprits, claims she is unfazed by the latest attacks, but pin-pointing the offenders will not be an easy task, even with police currently investigating and her own CCTV footage showing a pair of men attacking her building in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Jacenko's various tribulations have been documented for many years, including across these pages. When PS approached her for comment on Wednesday, Jacenko wryly fired back: "Andrew, was it you?"

Graffiti sprayed on the wall of Roxy Jacenko's Paddington office.Credit:Andrew Hornery Well, PS hates to disappoint but it wasn't. Indeed, Jacenko has many detractors. She remains embroiled in an ugly and highly-public stoush with both her father Nick Jacenko and his partner, fashion designer Lisa Ho, which resulted in police being called following one particularly nasty incident on the streets of Woollahra. She is also estranged from her younger sister Ruby, more than a decade after her sibling was accused of punching Roxy twice at a Kings Cross party. In 2013 she was the subject of a 1000-word plus poison-pen letter purportedly written by a former staffer and titled Miss Karma. The letter went viral. In more recent years everything from her nose job and boob job, breast cancer media deals, relationship with former lover Nabil Gazal while her husband Oliver Curtis was in jail, to her children's relentless social media exposure, has ensured her position as one of this city's most written about characters. But Jacenko has not loved ALL the attention. In 2016 she called in the police after a lewd photo scandal erupted surrounding her then four-year-old daughter Pixie involving photo-shopped images of the little girl. In February she was rattled enough to engage lawyers after she was embroiled in a vulgar slanging match in front of a packed room with one of the attendees at her one-woman motivational talk. And behind the scenes, some of her closest associates say the latest attack which follows three other vandalism episodes on her building, ranging from paint bombing to faeces being smeared over her front door have hit a raw nerve. Last week PS revealed how unpopular she had become with neighbours in Paddington fed up with her $400,000 Aston Martin and husband's $250,000 Range Rover being illegally parked on their already cramped street. Next month her Sweaty Betty PR firm is marking its 15-year anniversary and Jacenko is understood to have plans for a big party. Exactly who will be celebrating remains to be seen. Pay no attention to the missing actor With his 32-year relationship in tatters, one time Australian showbiz golden boy Simon Gallaher has pulled out of his starring role in the Wizard of Oz spectacular. Gallaher told PS he was unable to face the audience on Newcastle this weekend and has quit from the production, in which he was due to play the role of the Wizard as it toured regional Australia.

Simon Gallaher (top-right) has exited the production of Wizard of Oz. Gallaher's personal life has been heavily scrutinised for the past six months since his former lover, fellow entertainer Todd McKenney, revealed how he discovered his ex-boyfriend had left him for his sister, Lisa. This week Gallaher confirmed his marriage to Lisa, the mother of their two adult children, had come to an end following McKenney's extraordinary revelations, which McKenney made in a lengthy interview on a gay community radio station in Melbourne late last year. The split comes as the Gallahers are expecting to welcome their first grandchild in a matter of weeks.

Todd McKenney as P.T. Barnum.Credit:Jeff Busby Gallaher took to social media to defend the decisions he had made in his private life after being openly criticised. Gallaher wrote on Twitter: "There was no lying, no delusions, no double life. A wonderful monogamous relationship with someone for 32 years. The other was a former dalliance long finished before a loving and fruitful marriage with no secrets. This is a public outing not a personal one. Check your facts." McKenney, who coincidentally opens in Melbourne this weekend with his latest role as P.T. Barnum, declined to comment further when PS called for a response to Gallaher's claim their five-year relationship was a "dalliance". Town goes to country for birthday bash If Ron and Nancy Reagan were still alive, it would be a safe bet that they would be among the long lineup of social luminaries heading to socialite, charity queen and one time cover girl Skye Leckie's 60th birthday party at her country estate Mulberry Farm in the Southern Highlands this weekend.

Birthday girl: Sydney society queen Skye Leckie is planning to mark her 60th birthday in a very big way this weekend. The Reagans became instant fans of Leckie way back in 1982 when she was Skye Macleod and ended up on the cover of US society magazine Town & Country wearing an Akubra for the magazine's special edition on Australia. She had been working for Vogue Australia "writing captions in a storeroom" at the time when she was asked to pose for the magazine.

Covergirl: Skye Leckie on the cover of American magazine Town & Country in 1982. "I forgot all about it but then I got a call from the White House and immediately thought it was someone having a lend and hung up because I was trying to get the Lotto numbers off the TV. But they rang back, and were deadly serious. I realised it wasn't a prank at all. Ronald and Nancy wanted to know about my hat and by the time I hung up I was arranging to have Akubras and a couple of Drizabones sent over to them," Leckie recalled to PS this week. The Town & Country cover has been dusted off and used as her party invitation, with the likes of Gretel Packer, Julie Bishop, Leo Schofield, Rachel Griffiths, Michael Usher, Mark Ferguson, Karl Stefanovic and Samantha Armytage, along with PS, heading for what promises to be one of the parties of the year. Andrew Hornery is a senior journalist and Private Sydney columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald. Most Viewed in Entertainment Loading https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/celebrity/moore-filthy-about-hadley-s-handshake-after-bully-claim-20190424-p51grs.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

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stephanjofilm · 5 years

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WDP | FINAL FILM PRODUCTION AND POST PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION

DAY 1

Our production took two full days, we began by shooting all of the scenes in my room first. I got up early to completely re-decorate it, looking back now i wish i had put more effort in with the walls by getting a textured wallpaper as it’s not very noticeable in our film. We predominantly filmed on the XF100 and we also had my Sony A7 with a 50mm prime lens for the more intimate and close up moments. i did quite a lot of the cinematography work alongside james and Sarah was responsible for the sound. Zack was an excellent director and allowed the actors time to rehearse their lines whilst we set up, before shooting he let them get a sense of the space and practice getting into character. We did a few takes of each scene, occasionally Zack would prompt the actors by telling them to do a specific action, repeat the scene again but with a different tone of voice or improvise with whatever felt right. Matt, one of the actors, was also helpful in providing us with creative ideas. He suggested we include more close-ups and shots of hands as it was very dialogue heavy. One of Jake’s strongest performances was the ending scene where he completely loses it, he did not want to rehearse this as he felt it would feel more authentic if he just did it straight away. I think he did a really good job of getting into the situation of the character for this. Some of the acting felt a bit wooden and unrealistic when they were reciting the script word for word so it is good that most of it was improvised.

DAY 2

Day 2 came with a lot more complications. We had planned to shoot the scene with Matt and Jake in the morning and then Charlotte after lunch as she was only available after 1. Unfortunately, the bar was unavailable at the time we wanted to use it due to an easter event. Ideally, we should have all made a conscious effort to be more organized or, the creative producer would have double checked this beforehand. I found this day very draining as we were walking back and forth between locations. I did suggest to our crew that we should get a gimbal to stabilize our shots but this was not used during filming which ended up giving us more work in post-production. I learnt a lot about the reality of being on set and the logistics of things, every time zack mentioned a scene shouldn’t take too long it ended up taking a lot more than we expected due to the fact that there were so many factors we did not consider. There were many tiny technical details to consider which explains why continuity is often overlooked in films when there is so much going on. For instance, the opening credits where we all walk through the corridor- we had to re-do it the first time as we forgot to remove the advertising posters from the door and a second time because james was filming from behind and it looked strange that the person in front held the door open for him (breaks the barrier between reality and cinema space). When we finally got to the bar the SU told us we only had an hour to film before the bar opened, therefore, it ended up looking very rushed and my camera ran out so Zack had to use his phone. As predicted, this does not match the quality of our other clips.There is a lot to think about which made me realise the lack of planning we had, i think it would have been really useful if we had made a storyboard so that we would be more efficient with the angles we used.

In terms of improvement for next time, i definitely think we needed more of a collective effort when it came to planning. Perhaps, we should have re-shot the scene of the bar another day as i am not completely happy with it and i feel it weakens the film slightly. Furthermore, we did not use any external lighting besides my best efforts to suggest so which may weaken our film compared to everybody else’s as it may feel too flat and like we did not consider it. We could have used it in an inventive way such as shining it through the curtain fabric to create patterns in order to make it look more dramatic.

POST PRODUCTION | 16 HOURS

This was arguably the most difficult bit, this was not aided by the fact that we wanted to do it all before Easter as we wanted it to be a collective process. Therefore, we were in a tiny editing suite from 10-9pm on Wednesday and Thursday. It was a wearisome process to load all of the footage, find the best takes, work out where to cut to what angle and then sync all of the sound. We left the sound till last which perhaps was not the best idea as it meant that the clips were so cut up that finding the right audio was difficult. Due to the fact that some bits were improvised and others weren’t, it meant that at times we could not cut to another angle as it was obvious it did not match what they were saying. Or, we had to use a mixture of reaction shots. Sarah did a great job with adding in the music as it really helped set the mood. I then took the project home to colour grade and match the exposure on both the camera shots. The XF produces a much more flat and desaturated picture compared to my camera so i tried to find a happy balance between the two. I also had to darken the bar scenes significantly as they were shot on an iphone, therefore, we couldn’t control the lighting much.

The whole process was exhausting but definitley worth it as i learnt a lot more about tacticle film making and communicating in a crew. Although, if i were to direct the film i think i would have worked on the cinematography a lot more.

#wdp

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icechuksblog · 6 years

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In a new article titled ''President Buhari As a Public Relations Nightmare'' publisher Dele Momodu, chronicle the many mistakes President Buhari has made since assuming office and how it has distanced him from Nigerian youths who were so eager to have him come into office in 2015. According to Momodu, the Nigerian youths who said they would vote President Buhari in 2015 even if all he had as an academic credential was a NEPA bill, are so disappointed in him now that it will take a miracle and magic to get that kind of reconnection. Momodu went on to say that President Buhari has a lot of media practitioners around him but lacks a public relations expert that would handle any gaffe he creates professionally. Read his piece below... Fellow Nigerians, these are not the best of times for our dear President, Muhammadu Buhari. And it must be much worse for his media handlers. Let me state matter-of-factly, from the onset, that President Buhari gets into regular trouble, indeed, too frequently, because he has invested heavily in a media team but lacks a public relations team. In Nigeria, most leaders fail to realise that being a good journalist, Editor, Publisher, Broadcaster, and what have you, does not make you a good or excellent public relations guru. The other problem is I’m not sure the President is surrounded by those bold or brave enough to look him straight in the eye to tell him the honest truth. His earlier persona as a military ruler has also not helped matters in this respect. The fear of a military dictator is the beginning of wisdom, according to the view of an average Nigerian. I must confess that I have been a latter-day convert and ardent fan of President Buhari. I signed up only after he decided to contest the 2015 elections for a record fourth time. I took the view that he was the best man for the job particularly because the Jonathan administration was fumbling and not prone to correction. I played my part in articulating the President’s attraction for me and those like me who felt that he was what Nigeria required at the time, a stop-gap in the mould of Mandela option. Without being immodest I can say that I successfully played my own part in the eventual victory of APC and the Buhari/Osinbajo ticket. I first had a significant interaction with Buhari in 2011, when he asked Dr Lanre Tejuoso to bring me to his house in Abuja and we got on quite well. The camaraderie was palpable. And he disarmed me with his candour and passion. Prior to the 2015 election, I met Buhari in London at a flat in Mayfair, the day he spoke at Chatham House. He sprang to his feet as soon as I walked in and appeared happy to see me. We chatted briefly and took several pictures with Rotimi Amaechi, Hadi Sirika, Festus Keyamo, Hadiza Bala Usman and others. He was as effervescent and excited as everyone else at the prospect of becoming Nigeria’s new leader. His optimism for the country was infectious and I believed I had made a wise decision in deciding to follow and publicly support him. I vividly recollect my meeting with President Buhari shortly after he assumed office in 2015. This was at his behest. I found him very relaxed and jocular. We again got on well. Contrary to the public misconception and rumours about his taciturnity, he was witty, chatty and freely spoke his mind. He certainly did not appear dictatorial or aloof. Many of those who saw our interaction on television, as well as the pictures in different media, could not believe how freely we had bonded. I was surprised when a few Ministers asked what I did to make him feel so comfortable with me. Even before I went in to see him, a few people had pleaded with me to help talk to him frankly. I started getting the feeling that they considered me a suicide bomber who should carry away the sins of the earth. But the Buhari I met was not as difficult as he was made out to be. Everyone says when you hold meetings with him, it is a monologue, you are forced to do the talking while he does the listening. And that you never know whether he has heard you or what is on his mind. That was not the Buhari I met. He was receptive and we exchanged ideas on the various issues of national and social interest that we talked about. It is one of those inexplicable ironies that the same man who generated and galvanised so much love and passionate affection has lost and squandered most of that uncommon goodwill. No one since the June 12, 1993, election, which was clearly and undoubtedly won by Chief MKO Abiola, has had such monumental, widely acclaimed and fair victory as President Buhari did in 2015. The youths of Nigeria were so much in love with him that they studiously ignored all his shortcomings and embraced him warts and all. The same youths are so angry today that I’m almost certain it would take some magic and miracle to get them to reconnect with our President like they did in 2015. There was nothing anyone could have said negatively to Buhari that they would have believed at that time. As a matter of fact, the youths said if Buhari presented NEPA bills as his school certificate result, they would accept it as genuine and further, that they were ready to march for Buhari all the way to Aso Rock. So what went wrong? It is difficult to point at just one thing. It has been an amalgamation of conflicting issues and signals. The first was the attitude exhibited early in the life of this government that there was no real urgency and Buhari could take forever to handpick his team. The government lost the much-needed steam at that moment. And when the team was announced, it was déjà vu, because there was no difference and no big deal about their composition. Next was the witting or unwitting decision to start a war of attrition within his own party. I warned against this very quickly, but was dismissed as raising false alarm. The APC became a house divided against itself. Till this day they couldn’t hold regular meetings, they couldn’t make most of the necessary political appointments, they couldn’t select their board of trustees, they couldn’t even hold a convention to celebrate their victory not to talk of one to elect a new national executive and so on. The Party’s highfalutin campaign promises soon became its albatross. The grandiloquent manifesto had been packaged to entice everyone like babies to lollipop but when the day of reckoning and delivery came, the chocolate boxes were suddenly and strangely empty. The schools feeding programs could not be achieved. The social security and welfare packages of arranging stipends for the unemployed youths reached a cul-de-sac because government could not muster such resources. The President’s avowed fiscal policy target of parity between the Naira and the US Dollar – One Naira to one US Dollar proved to be a pipe dream that all discerning members of the public knew it would be. Indeed, it was much worse as the Naira slid to its lowest ever price against all currencies including African ones. Buhari’s biggest attraction was the belief that he would easily wipe out, or at least significantly reduce, corruption in Nigeria. Those who believed the hype saw him as the only saint in Nigeria, but they forgot that sinners are probably the only ones capable of catapulting the saint to power. He tried his best in fighting the demons of Nigerian democracy, but they were much smarter than he ever bargained for. Pronto, the demons lined up in a long queue and migrated from PDP to APC where they are now comfortably ensconced and protected. Several corruption allegations and scandalous revelations involving members of the government or trusted aides and associates have either been ignored or swept under the carpet. Thus it has become difficult for the ruling party to stand on any moral ground and sermonise or pontificate about fighting corruption. For every finger pointed at others, four fingers pointed back at them. The sacred cows, otherwise known as the cabal, and other members of the Politburo have remained mysteriously and monstrously powerful and untouchable. The most nauseating to many people has been the blame game. This has irritated so many people, including former Head of State and President, Olusegun Obasanjo, who exploded and told Buhari frontally to deliver on his promises instead of his regular lamentations. He effectively said everyone knew the former government did abominably badly and that is why it was sacked. The blame game seemed to have backfired as Nigerians are bored sick of hearing the same jejune tales over and over, instead of government telling us the good news of their own kingdom, and juxtaposing their own achievements against that of former President Goodluck Jonathan. The government should have known that hungry people hardly listen attentively to preaching and sooner than later would request for the way forward. Using the past as an excuse can only work up to a point. The people want action and not this litany of woes. The other problem, and this is grave, is that the President hardly talks to Nigerians in Nigeria. And when he speaks, the words are so scanty and not much can be grabbed from them. Our President was critically ill and had to domicile himself abroad for several months cumulatively, yet no one knows what was wrong till this day. A public figure cannot afford to be too secretive in this manner. It only fuels curiosity and promotes ugly rumours. Significantly, the President who does not speak at home picks the wrong places and occasions to talk abroad and attracts controversies and public ridicule to himself and his country. The headlines have always been for the wrong reasons rather than the right mileage for the country and himself from the international media exposure and interest. On those trips, we’ve expanded the lexicon with such phrases as “the other room”; or as the latest gaffe goes “young people who want to sit and want to be paid free money and free health…” I have been inundated by calls since President Buhari made his latest remarks in London in answer to a question at the end of his keynote address at the Commonwealth Business Forum. To say most of the comments have been quite bad is an understatement. To properly understand I listened to the video and transcribed it myself, although I also had access to my dear brother, the Special Adviser Media to the President, Femi Adesina’s transcription. Below is my humble effort: “We have ah, a very young population. Our population is estimated conservatively to be ah, a hundred and eighty million. Ah, this is a conservative one. More than 60 per cent of the population is below the age of (sic) thirty. Ah, a lot of them haven’t been to school. They are claiming ah, ah, you know, that Nigeria has been an oil producing country, therefore ah, they should sit and do nothing and get housing, healthcare, ah, education free.” The furore and fury the latest controversy has generated on social media is almost unprecedented. It is like touching the tiger by the tail. A seemingly harmless statement credited to President Buhari has ignited a huge conflagration everywhere. I felt bad for Femi Adesina as he struggled to defend, explain and transliterate what the President said or meant to say to an unwilling and unyielding audience. It has become a very heavy cross he must carry every time his boss speaks these days and it cannot be easy. It is true the President did not use the word lazy or say that all Nigerian youths sit at home and do nothing. It is also not true that he used the word half-educated. However, what he said about the youths suggests something worse, although that is clearly not what was meant. “a lot of them did not go to school”, translates to a lot of them are uneducated which is even worse than half-educated. One may pardon the President because empirically this is true of the educationally disadvantaged States with which he is very familiar, but it is blatantly false about the south where education is much advanced. Similarly, to say somebody sits down and does nothing and wants to claim freebies is to say that person is irresponsible. In my view, this is much worse than laziness. Factor in the fact that free health, free education and affordable housing for all, were the campaign slogans of the APC and no one begged for it. So you can see a public relations disaster right before your very eyes. President Buhari indeed has become a public relations nightmare. He is seriously in need of experts and coaches in public speaking and etiquette, especially now that he has decided to challenge fate by aspiring for a second term in office. If the plan is to throw in combatants, trolls and internet warriors to bully his opponents into submission, it would not fly. He needs all the gentility in the world to cajole, coax and convince Nigerians that he means well; that he knows what he is doing; that he is tackling the difficult challenges; that he is not a religious bigot or ethnic supremacist or jingoist; that he would reduce the menace of, if not wipe out, Boko Haram; that he would destroy the rampaging invaders called herdsmen wherever they are coming from; that he would revamp and improve the economy; that he would create opportunities for all Nigerians including jobs for our restive youths; and above all that he will keep all the brightest people closer to him … I pray it is not too late…

http://icechuks2.blogspot.com/2018/04/nigerian-youths-are-so-angry-it-will.html

#http://icechuks2.blogspot.com/2018/04/nigerian-youths-are-so-angry-it-will.html ''Nigerian youths ar

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