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summerrobyn · 4 months ago

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Two Uika Theory (Episode 9)

I was going to do the dialogue post first then this episode happened.

I'll admit I was almost broken by this on my first watch, I thought that the theory was dead. However, upon rewatching, I realised all was not lost.

Warning: I'm going to sound utterly deranged here but I'm sure that's expected at this point. Without further adieu, let's get started with analysing Episode 9 of Ave Mujica. As always, I'll be using Luika and Ruika to refer to the left handed Uika and right handed Uika respectively.

We start off with a clear frame of Uika using her left hand to scroll on her phone.

You might note that she's actually holding her hand with her right but according to posts from left handed people, it's quite common for them to hold in the right hand and then navigate (scroll, type, swipe) with their left if they're using it with two hands.

In this case, she's using her finger on her left hand to scroll and her right to hold the phone. I would say that this is Luika then.

The next time we see Uika is when she meets with Anon at the cafe.

Here she is holding her phone with both hands so that's no clear indication of what hand she's using.

We then get her gesturing to Anon to come over with her right hand. You might think that this is a clear indication that it's Ruika but actually I'm not convinced.

Humans gesture with either hand so while I find it indicative when it happens, I don't use it as my sole basis for if it's Luika or Ruika. It's good supporting evidence but we have plenty of instances where in other scenes the hand that does the main gesture switches. There's also the scene where Ruika is speaking with Sakiko in Episode one and she's holding her guitar case in her right hand. As such, she gestures with her left during the scene but all else indicates that this was Ruika.

I'm sure there are several instances where people gesture with whatever hand they feel like in the moment. People do not only use one hand for everything, they can use either, it's just for the most part we have a hand we mainly use for things. Uika is strange because her switches in hands seem rigid and binary for the most part, rather than anything natural. She doesn't act for convince when doing tasks but with gestures both Luika and Ruika use either hand, though they tend to favour their dominant one unless something means they can't use it that much.

Here, Uika is beckoning Anon over. If she decided to raise her left hand, it would be more hidden by her body, right? In this moment, the hand is chosen because it's easier for Anon to see from where she's standing. Making a gesture at some one, one designed to get their attention or direct them, and then choosing to use a hand that they can't see makes no sense regardless of whether you're right or left handed.

For the rest of the scene, Uika holds her phone with both hands.

She presents Anon the phone here with both of her hands. There is nothing in this scene that actually indicates a dominant hand here.

I would still say it's Ruika, if only because of her focus on Sakiko in this scene. We see her only looking at her and we know that the Uika seen in small glimpses have been right handed as well. That is the Uika that was staring at the CRYCHIC post so her being Ruika makes sense. It's the same post as well - unlike Luika in the beginning who is actually looking into MYGO!!!!! and our favourite Anon Tokyo. I can't say anything very definitive about why she's choosing to look at her but I do think its interesting that Luika seems to be the Uika that's working on sumimi stuff now.

It's almost as if Ruika can't bear to be on stage without Saki-chan beside her...

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for a theory

I also have to bring up her choice of tea. It's a reference to the "A Joyful Tea Time" card in the dacha game with Hazawa Tsumugi in it. I can’t tell if Uika choosing to drink tea is just so they could make the reference or a sign of something because they could still have Anon order that blend on her own and still have the reference. The fact that our resident black coffee drinker Uika is drinking tea without prompting is making me raise my eyebrow.

I recall that when the Uika in the hotel made Sakiko a cup of coffee, she only made one for her. This was the Uika that stumped for a bit but I did eventually reason that it had to be Luika.

Also of note is the fact that while Ruika is missing Saki-chan and hugging her pillow, she makes two cups of coffee for the both of them. Black coffee itself is very much tied in with Uika and the fact that she isn't drinking it might be a hint that somethings up.

Of course, this could also just be for the reference but again it could have been done simply by having Anon order it from the menu. There's no reason for Uika specifically to drink that tea.

So is it actually Luika there?

We now return to your regularly scheduled programming

Aside from my suspicions about the tea, the focusing on Saki-chan in this scene makes me believe that we have Ruika here and she's not having a good time.

The next Uika we see is her at school. She is clearly writing with her right hand here so we can say this one is Ruika pretty easily.

She doesn't make any more gestures in this scene, in fact her hands stay by her side or held together for the most part. That or they are out of frame with no clear indication of any dominant hand.

This same Uika heads straight after school to the agency without even changing. When she's searching for the Ave Mujica costumes, she pushes the first bag aside with her right hand.

Both of her arms wrap around the costume when she finds it but by then it's pretty clear its Ruika and she's not having a good time. Again.

Following this is the scene that nearly broke me.

We next see Uika at the planetarium again. She's sitting in the aisle seat that we've seen Ruika in multiple times by now.

This shot is actually really interesting. The heavy shadow splits her face in half. One side that is illuminated with light and the other in the darkness. Notably, it's her right half that's cast in light and her left that's in darkness but I'll touch more on my thoughts about that later.

And then we see her leaving as Tomori and Mustumi arrive.

Here we see her reach out with her right hand. Either option works here, there's about equal distance between both hands and Tomori so if she was aiming to grab her then her choosing her right is pretty telling.

She then grabs the notebook with both hands, proceeding to hold the book with her right and then chooses to open it with her left hand.

Admittedly, this could be read either way so I decided to gather some primary data because while posts about left handed people generally indicated that they would also hold the book with their right hand and turn pages with their left, it was harder to figure out which hand right handed people used. There's always the possibility that these left handed people learned to do this action with their right hand because that was the easiest way of reading for a product made with right handed people in mind.

If you need to know how books are designed for right handed people I gesture to the dreaded spiral notebook, which is the most egregious offender but doesn't change the fact that books are all designed in an almost identical way.

Anyway, I gave members of my family a book with both hands (as Tomori did) and asked them to open it. All of them took it with their right hand and opened it with their left.

As such, it could be concluded that at the very least this exact combination of right hand hold and left hand open is not exclusive to one hand or the other. Considering she reached out with her right hand earlier, so far it seems like this is Ruika.

But we aren't done yet.

Moving past the painterly cityscape that I have several questions about considering that Uika is a country girl who did not have any cities based on what we've seen from her home island, we move closer towards the moment.

We get a flashback to Sakiko calling Ruika back in Episode 7! Right now I'm completely sure that this is Ruika.

And because this anime loves Uika's hands for some reason we get another close up of her left hand. God they love her left hand. Seriously, I have never seen so many close ups of a hand from any other character.

We do get one for Nyamu in this episode but that's to set up the fact that she's here without actually showing her face. We see her bracelet but if you aren't paying close attention you'll blink and miss it. The hand close ups for Uika aren't done for the same reasons. Why do they put so much attention on this hand, regardless of if it's Luika or Ruika?

But I digress, we have finally hit the moment and at first, I thought I had been clearly proven wrong. Thus far Uika has made all major movements (as in excluding gestures) with one hand as the dominant one and she switches between scenes. Here, we clearly see her using her right and yet we then see her grab Mutsumi with her left.

It's undeniably her left. The moment I saw this I thought I was well and truly fucked. Was all that research for nothing? Had I simply been looking too deeply into something insignificant?

But then I reexamined the scene.

Let's breaking it down from the beginning, shall we?

We'll start with Mutsumi and her magic guitar.

We can see here pretty clearly that when Mutsumi is holding her guitar with both of her hands, it leans towards the left of her face. That's just basic gravity but I point it out for a good reason.

We can see here that she's holding the guitar with one hand while holding Tomori with her left. The guitar in this instance is on the right side of her face, as the laws of physics would demand.

A key thing to note here is how far Mutsumi is leaning towards her. Her upper body is leaning quite far forward, enough to where if she lets go without readjusting at all then she would likely stumble forward at the very least. The weight of a guitar wouldn't help that at all.

And then here comes the strange part.

Here we see Mutsumi from the side. In this moment she actually moves even further forward, the motion is clear in the episode itself.

Notice anything strange?

The neck of her guitar is on the left side of her face.

I originally thought this was an animation error and went over the scene several more times to confirm but after closer inspection I don't believe that's the case.

You could argue she switched hands. Especially since once we break out of the intrusive thought we are greeted by this shot of her holding the guitar with both hands.

But that's because Mutsumi is looking at Uika.

In the shot above, she cannot physically have let go of her guitar and leaned even further forward. Her balance would be too precarious.

We know its not a matter of it being the other side of her face being show either because of the lighting. It does not make sense for her to move even further forward and it's not a matter of correction when the scene is laid out as it is. We do not see the background move in frame in the right manner for that to work.

Furthermore, this is an anime made with 3D models. The excuse of a mistake in the animation process is not as easy to believe as it is with 2D animation. It's not just a matter of not thinking about what's off screen and so ending up with a continuity error, with 3D models you can see everything.

More effort would have to be put in to change which side of her face the neck is than in 2D animation and considering how smooth everything else as been (aside from that one Umiri hand moment) I can't buy that this is a simple animation error.

So what is it then?

Regardless of whether you believe that there are two Uika's or one, I think it's safe to say that this represents an inversion of sorts. Of course, this perspective depends entirely on when you think the intrusive thought started.

Personally, I think the phrase "Saki is happier that way too," is what set Uika off in her mind.

We can tell by the positioning of Tomori and Mutsumi after the intrusive thought that Mutsumi must have turned around to face her at least. In that case, it's highly likely that the exchange is as we saw it until we hit where the neck of the guitar switches sides.

The line itself is just perfect for Uika to lose her mind over.

If this is the case, then the moment right after is within the realm of her intrusive thoughts. After all, the facial expression she makes right afterwards didn't seem to appear on her face in reality, she also didn't actually scream those words. I think the other's would have reacted a bit more strongly if it had, even if they are the more soft spoken pair.

Instead, they seem concerned which is only natural since the face Uika makes afterwards is this:

It's interesting to note that the guitar being the odd thing out is something that continues into the intrusive thought.

Here we can clearly see that Mutsumi's guitar has just flat out disappeared. It is nowhere in frame. The warping of reality has worsened in this moment.

Tomori's lack of reaction makes it telling that this isn't actually happening. After all, in this moment Uika's mind is focused on hurting Mutsumi for taking away Saki-chan from her. The reactions of others don't matter in this moment.

And neither does the guitar.

I have many things I want to say about this but that might have to be dedicated to the dialogue post. For now, I'll simply refer back to Luika making a comment to Mutsumi on two different occasions about her skill at playing guitar. In both instances, she compliments Mutsumi before even thinking to mention Saki-chan, although she does do so but only after she says something to Mutsumi.

In contrast, Ruika doesn't even perceive the guitar. To her all that matters is the fact that Mutsumi is a threat to her because she's trying to take Saki-chan away from her. Everything else in that moment is inconsequential.

That's all I'll say on that for now but it's food for thought.

And finally, we see Uika hold her left hand to her chest as she runs away from them. Ruika is clearly horrified by what she just thought and makes to escape.

Once again gestures mean close to nothing but this one I think has more narrative purpose. Stick with me now because it's going to sound slightly insane at first.

I am almost certain that the person in this scene is Ruika. There's more evidence in favour of it than against and her behaviour about Sakiko is most telling. For reasons I will expand upon later in the dialogue post, I believe that Ruika is the Uika that is obsessed with Sakiko while Luika is not. I don't mean that Luika doesn't care about her, simply that Sakiko is not the centre of her world as she is for Ruika.

Having watched this scene multiple times, I have to wonder if the reason Ruika sees this moment with Uika using her left hand is because thats something Luika would do.

Stay with me now.

When I first started this theory, I originally thought that Ruika kept Luika around to reflect her because she was the Uika that Sakiko liked more (again more of in the dialogue post) but after analysing the dialogue, the intermissions and the songs more, I thought it was more fitting if Luika's true nature is more like Doloris.

It even matches with the OP as some people have argued that the split is showing Uika and Doloris rather than two Uikas. So here I present a third option, the second Uika is Doloris.

Luika is usually confined to being Uika. She is following Ruika's desires and her promises, especially in regards to Sakiko. But when she sings she can convey her true feelings (as Doloris) like she told Tomori in Episode 10.

In other words, when Uika sings the monster called Doloris can convey her thoughts. Whether it's Ruika or Luika performing, the monster known as Doloris appears.

Following this, I'll reiterate that my original idea was that Ruika keeps Luika around to properly reflect the personality that Sakiko likes and while of course I don't think thats quite it anymore, combining it with the idea that Luika when she isn't pretending to be Uika is the monster known as Doloris adds some weight to this.

If Ruika is in some capacity trying to act as Luika (and also maybe vice versa, they are trying to be one person and so they may try to mimic as much of each other as they can) and she's trying to reflect her interests, her likes, her personality - the things Saki-chan likes about Luika - its entirely possible that in trying to mimic those thought processes, she's also inherited some of the same qualities so to speak. In trying to copy her, she has taken on aspects of her into her subconscious.

Even if they are two different people, they're still pretending to be one person.

At the end of the day who is Uika?

It's Luika and Ruika pretending to be one but where is the line drawn in that identity? What belongs to one Uika and what belongs to the other? What do they share?

Even if Luika's love and obsession is not devoted to Sakiko like Ruika's is - in my opinion I think she's centred around Ave Mujica more as it allowed her to "free" herself in a sense - they both definitely have a certain view of the world.

Who's to say that Ruika in that moment thinks that Luika being the monster that she is wouldn't try to harm Mutsumi?

Her mind, which is always in some part focused on properly portraying Uika - and that involves asking what the other Uika, the one she has become almost one with in terms of behaviour, would do. To Ruika, even if it doesn't quite coincide with how Luika actually feels because they do differ in that aspect, if it were Luika in that same situation she would act that way.

Note: I'm not saying that anyone with BPD is inherently monstrous or anything like that. I'm also not denying that this thought was caused by BPD. In fact, they could both have BPD with it manifesting in different way, it doesn't necessarily conflict with anything I've said.

Ruika in this moment might not even be actively choosing to think about what Luika might do but she naturally appears because her existence is so wrapped up in Ruika's own feelings about Sakiko and Ave Mujica - and also maybe Mutsumi. It is impossible for her to think about those things and for Luika to not appear.

So then with all that in mind maybe her holding her left hand to her chest afterwards isn't her switching which hand she's using as her dominant one (because again gestures aren't actually that telling in terms of hand dominance) but rather Ruika "restraining" Luika in a sense.

The hand that commits that kind of violence is Luikas, its Uika's left hand. Ruika holds it closely to that it cant reach out and destroy whats in its way.

Perhaps the reason her face is split with the right brightly lit and the left cast in shadow is because Ruika believes that Luika is a monster.

Maybe the identity of Uika is the cage that she uses to trap the monster inside. Of course, that last part is just me spitballing.

I don't have anything I can really say about Uika at the end. There's no sign at all in terms of hand movements, they stay pretty stubbornly at her side the entire time. Ruika did mention before that she was going home first, who knows how much time past between then and the scene at the Live House.

All I know for certain is that she's going through it.

Her being relegated to the background, even being covered up by Sakiko in one moment feels very telling. She's back in the trenches of her disappearance where she didn't even show up on screen except its even worse because she's literally here and no one's even looking at her.

Also based on the way the arm is positioned I'm inclined to believe this Uika is leaning against something (a wall? a person?) with her left hand so I'll say it's Luika for now.

I cannot wait to see her crash out.

Conclusion

And with that I conclude my analysis of Episode 9 of Ave Mujica. I hope my analysis sounded alright but I also should clarify I've had like... 19 hours of sleep over the past week, which if you do the math does not meet the recommended amount in the slightest.

Truly, every time I look at this I am baffled by Uika's hands. Everything about her is baffling to me and that's why I love her.

#uika misumi #ave mujica #bandori #bang dream #two uika theory

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ohsoromanov · 1 year ago

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The dining room at the Lower Dacha in Peterhof

The principle of unity of interior design was also noted in the dining room. A high paneled panel with a shelf above it, painted with white enamel, decorated the walls of the room. The panel was fitted with folding shelves, a two-tiered sideboard with mirrors in the niche and sliding doors in the center, hiding the lifting machine. The fireplace with mirrors was also paneled in white painted wood. In the center of the room was a sliding dining table, a buffet table with folding shelves. The furniture was slightly rounded. The tables and chairs were also upholstered in blue and blue shagreen leather, the floor was covered with a plush greenish-blue carpet with dark blue medallions, and the windows were covered with light fawn curtains with dark fawn poppy flowers and green leaves. On the fireplace, in the niche and on the shelves - porcelain in the Art Nouveau style of Russian work, colored and transparent glass, crystal vases. In general, the decoration and decoration of the dining room resembled the cabins of the royal yacht "Standart". The image of the "Standard" by N. D. Prokofiev, numerous photographs of the yacht, as well as seascapes by M. S. Tkachenko, I. V. Krachkovsky, Albert N. Benois decorated the walls of the room. There were also presented two sketches by Ilya Repin for the paintings "The Marriage of Nicholas II and Alice of Hesse" and "Cossacks Write a letter to the Turkish Sultan". {x}

#lower dacha #romanov #romanovs

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look-sharp-notes · 8 months ago

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Да́ча Гаусва́льд — особняк на Каменном острове в Санкт-Петербурге. В начале 1980-х здесь снимали фильм «Приключения Шерлока Холмса и доктора Ватсона» (дом Ирэн Адлер). Здание было построено в 1898 году в стиле модерн.

Dacha Gauswald is a mansion on Kamenny Island in Saint Petersburg. In the early 1980s, the film The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson was filmed here (Irene Adler's house). The building was built in 1898 in the Art Nouveau style.

#Autumn #Foto for inspiration #Photo of the Day #style #vintage #beautiful images #images #travel #things with character #mood #color day #style #elegance #sharp look #elegant notes #Gallery Inspiration #light #sun #patina #color o day #play colors

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pastedpast · 4 months ago

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Since Saturday I've been reading the second part of Viv Albertine's memoirs, the first being 'Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys' which I read when it was published, say, ten years ago [Fact check: Not a bad guess, it was May 2014]. Albertine was, of course, a member of ace punk band, The Slits, of whom I've been reminded recently as I'm planning to post a lovely photograph I've found online of lead singer, Ari Up, on the 14th anniversary of this blog (Ari was only 14 years old when she formed the band with the Spanish drummer, Palmolive).

Sometime last week, courtesy of a free trial membership to a well-known film & video subscription service, I was able to watch a documentary about the band I had not known about before ('Here to Be Heard: The Story of the Slits', 2017) and have followed it up by watching various YouTube clips of Ari and Viv being interviewed. Ari is (was) such a unique character, humorous, fun, original; a strong, individual female and very good-natured. She had a fantastic vocal ability and a fascinating journey through life, albeit cut far too short. In contrast, Viv, the guitarist, has endured a difficult and emotionally harrowing time of it. Her life started off on the wrong foot through no fault of her own, being trapped in the crossfire of her parents' deeply acrimonious, violent relationship and subsequent divorce, the catastrophic by-product of which was the dire and irreparably damaged relationship with her sister.

I'm about ¾ of the way through the book. I'm at the part where, after the deaths of firstly her father, then later her 95-year old mother, she discovers their diaries secreted away in their individual dwellings (the title of the book is taken from the instructions written on the bag containing her mother's diary). Well, I'm fascinated with diaries [see previous blog post here], (not least my own as I am an avid diarist), so when I read about the diaries mentioned in an article somewhere on the Internet, I ordered a second-hand copy of the book and it arrived in a mere matter of days.

So, hmmm. Although the dissection of a dysfunctional family presented alongside cringe-inducing anecdotes of failed and shoddy romances appear to make for a rather miserable, depressing read, somehow the book remains a page-turner, especially after Albertine shares and discusses various revelatory passages from the diaries. There is a complicated backstory to her parents' relationship which contains several threads, a major one developing from the refusal of Albertine's French father to allow her mother to maintain contact with her son, David, from a previous marriage.

I'm inspired to dig out Viv Albertine's first book which is buried somewhere amongst the debris of the dacha and read it again. I feel like I understand her much more clearly having read these later chapters of her life. As well as reading about her youth and the early days of punk, there was a period when she lived in Hastings with her (now ex) husband and their daughter I'd like to revisit. She went through a tough time with IVF, miscarriage and cervical cancer. The second memoir, published in 2018, sees her moving into an artists' home/work community space in Hackney, north London. [Note to self: Explore Hackney & Shoreditch next time I visit London].

To be continued...

*I have approx. 60 pages left to read. l'm taking a break to enjoy a bowl of Heinz tomato soup for my evening meal. I will probably finish the book tonight.

My interest in the book was piqued shortly after writing the original part of this post, once Albertine began dissecting her mother's diary entries which put flesh on the bones of what she had written earlier and we see just how nasty Lucien, the father, really was. Before that, I had joked to myself, a tad cockily, that the title was good advice on how to deal with this book. My initial thoughts were that it veered too far towards being a man-hating mis-fest soaked in belligerence and grudges, but thankfully I stuck with it because as we learn more about Kathleen's perspective (please note that the mother is a complex and not wholly innocent player) the narrative swept me up and I was carried along like a pebble in a river, flowing forwards. She writes well*, does Viv Albertine.

I've taken the time to look at the snippets of glowing reviews in the introductory pages which I had originally thought were just literati hogwash. Now I understand why she deserves accolades such as: "Her conversational style of writing is lullingly deceptive, allowing the revelations, when they come, to explode like well-placed bombs", and: "Past traumas drop deep anchors, abutting the present-day reality of a life, but Albertine has made compelling art out of what lies beneath".

Pause for soup.

*Her ability to recall details of her surroundings from events that occurred in the past is nothing short of extraordinary. Either she's made them up later for literary effect, or has a superhuman, razor-sharp memory, or maybe makes notes everywhere she goes. About two thirds in, I wondered if it was a trait connected to autism. She has had some sort of diagnosis (can't remember what, will have to check). She's very aware of objects, clothes, material things and her surroundings - it's interesting how she takes stock of everything around her. I can see that I'm not through with this book yet, I'm going to have to have another think about it before it finds a resting place on my bookshelves.

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ricardian-werewolf · 10 months ago

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Chapter 7: We were Never Alive

Ao3 Link

Summary:

Alina and the gang find the stag in the wilds of Tsibeya, and are forced to come to terms with what the amplifier means for Alina. They must be ready for just how far the Darkling is willing to go to gain utter and complete power. What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men

Notes:

Tws: The Darkling, brutal violence, pain, abuse and physical assault

Taglist: @lordbettany, @fauxraven, @dreadbirate, @hysterionic

Chapter below the cut.

Tsibeya - Early Spring.

In the moment of lucidity that Alina felt while she stood between the Darkling and the stag, she realised just how unprepared she was.

To fight him. To live another day. The trek had been easier after they’d commandeered the Costa’s long-boat and bumped into Mal in the foothills. Weeks of tracking, traipsing up and down and back up mountainsides had brought them… here. To the clearing of the herd. On Mal’s advice, the four of them had reluctantly set up camp under a thicket of low-hanging pine branches and burned no fire. Alina’s light had given them enough heat to stave off dying of the cold. They’d eaten the last of their rations and Mal had prepared to lay traps.

Yet… When twilight had fallen, from the fringes of the clearing came the Darkling’s Grisha and the Black Heretic himself. Amongst them were First Army soldiers armed with rifles and bows, along with the needed local trackers from nearby mountain dachas . All had been going well enough until one of the soldiers saw Alina’s flash of uniform and chaos erupted. A scuffle had broken out - Three Grisha and one tracker against a centuries old Shadow-summoner and his team of well-trained soldiers, Grisha and not. It was an unfair fight by any standards. In the chaos, the herd had bolted, and someone had shot the stag clean through the left upper shoulder. It had staggered, then fallen, its legs breaking under it.

Alina had made the stupid decision to bolt for the stag at the same time one of the First Army trackers shot Mal through the stomach with an arrow. Charging into the mess, she yanked Mal up under his shoulder blades and the two orphans collapsed in front of the stag. Throwing her hands up, she summoned a dome of light.

“Bloody hell, Alina…” Mal groaned. “You idiot, what're you doing?!”

“Trying to keep us alive!” She yelled.

Alina’s hands shook, sweat pouring down her face and settling into her armpits and curves of her body as she fought vainly to keep the shield up. By her side, Mal lay prone. Genya was switching between her Corporalki training and work with Nikolai every moment it seemed.

And Nikolai… Her fox-prince was firing off on all cylinders. His pistols let off smoke in the frigid cold as he switched off on firing them with excellent accuracy or cutting down the Darkling’s Oprichniki with his officers' sabre. Either way, he was the blade Alina had desperately hungered for. Yet… even he was mortal.

She could only watch in terrified horror as his powers, stolen and corrupted by the Darkling, crept over him slowly. Merzost sunk its claws in deep and made his hands cramp with unimaginable pain. All of it made him that bit more sluggish. So when an Inferni ’s flame shot found him, Nikolai couldn’t dodge. It threw him backwards, crashing through Alina’s light shield. He hit the snow-bank with a sickening thud , and laid there, blood pouring from a wound in his leg.

But he still cocked his pistols back and got to his feet. Blood dripped in a steady stream onto the snowbank at his feet. Yet, he fought on. Alina’s hand gripped his arm and she shook her head, begging him not to exert himself so. “Please, Nikolai…” She whispered. “You’ll die.”

“At least I’ll die on my feet.” He shot blindly, the bullet clipping the Darkling’s left ear. Silence followed.

“Enough!” The Darkling shouted, shadows cloaking the ground around where the shield touched the snow. “Your tracker is hurt, you don’t know what you’re doing, Alina. Time is running out for your blessed prince! Before long, he’ll to a monster and kill you!” He taunted.

“No-” Nikolai groaned, stepping in front of Alina. He tugged off his greatcoat and rolled up the sleeves of his dolman . Alina’s eyes widened as the black veins stretched up his arms and writhed . Somehow, they were alive. “She knows just what she’s doing.”

He raised his hands in front of him, his nails becoming long black claws, jagged and edged with something sharper than diamond. Shadows - not the Darkling’s, but the ones Nikolai had cast long ago at the crossing in the caravan to the Little Palace - poured from his hands. They formed something monstrous at his feet. Something with teeth and jagged claws.

“Drop the shield, now!” He yelled over his shoulder. Alina barely had time to cry out as she did, and the shadows - the Darkling and Nikolai’s - careened towards one another. The explosion created a shockwave that rattled the trees, and in the darkness, Alina gasped as Nikolai grabbed her wrist. Light exploded out in a multitude of colours and surged up in a solid beam . Her other hand was latched tight around the antlers of the dying stag. In the twilight, Nikolai’s eyes burned gold . The beam of light formed a stronger shield, illuminating everything around them so that the snow was blinding .

“Sunshine, you’re glowing .” His grin was infectious, and Alina looked around at their little motley. Mal was still collapsed at her feet, but even his pallor looked healthier. Genya had stopped in her heart-rending to watch this light-show, and through the wall of darkness, Alina saw the Darkling’s soldiers stagger backwards in awe and horror.

“W-what…” The Darkling breathed as Nikolai waved his hand and the shadows faded. In its place, only a surge of light flowed upwards around Alina and her crew. Her left hand was clutched tightly in Nikolai’s, and her right still clung to the antlers.

Alina closed her eyes, the surge of power almost knocking her over. She needed the amplifier, like a dying man needed a healer. She grasped Nikolai’s hand tighter and kissed his bloodied knuckles. Snow fluttered around them, sticking fast to her hair and his coat-collar. But the moment of peace ended with a wet noise coming from Nikolai’s mouth.

None of them, foolish teens as they were, had remembered that Nikolai was wounded. That the clock to him becoming a monster was indeed ticking down. He sank to his knees in the snow and pulled Alina down with her. The beam faded and the shield cracked , its strength fading more with each second.

“Nikolai!”

Her grip on the antlers slipped, and the power surge died, leaving her wanting more than ever. Desperately, she lunged for the antlers once more, but screamed as a bolt of shadow drove into the back of her hand.

“NO! NO!” Panic filled her as she saw the Darkling advance and spread his hands wide. Shadows rose up in waves and rushed towards them. Desperate, Alina threw her hands over her face. Light fought against the inky blackness swallowed her, blocking out her vision. Distantly, she could hear Genya’s screams, and Nikolai’s hoarse cries filling the air.

“Nikolai! Genya! Where are you?! Help me!”

“Alina!”

The darkness lifted with a great, sudden whoosh of air, and Alina glanced up. Buried as she was in the snow, she’d fallen within a few feet of Nikolai. He’d caged Genya under him and his hand was scrambling in the snow for anything he could fight with. But he stalled as the wound in his leg became too much and fell sideways, pulling Genya against him. His free hand snatched Alina’s wrist and she was yanked harshly into his embrace. Rage had furrowed his brows and he glared up at the figure leaning over them.

Zoya.

“Don’t move. Not one of you.” She hadn’t lifted the darkness completely, merely moved it a few feet to shield the Darkling from the sight of her. She knelt before them and adjusted the collar of her kefta , then dug around in her pockets. She seemed to be looking for something, but in low words spoke to them:

“He’s going to wound you in more ways than one. He’s already got Nikolai, and Genya…” Her voice broke as Alina’s gaze snapped to the Tailor. Shuddering, shaking in Nikolai’s arms, Genya had thrown her hands over her face. She pulled them down to reveal black wounds dripping blood. Somehow, the shadows had slashed all over her body, torn her Sarafan in multiple places and ripped out her eye.

Vomit surged up the back of Alina’s throat and she crammed her hands over her mouth. No, By the saints, no! She gasped, reaching for her friend. Genya flinched, smacking Alina’s hands back. “No!” She howled. “No! Not me! Baghra said I had nothing to fear!”

“She was wrong..” Nikolai groaned. In the dim twilight, he looked pale. Distantly, Alina heard the moans of the dying stag and Mal’s whimpers. The arrow was still embedded in him. She looked up into Zoya’s eyes.

“What if we surrender? W-would he heal them?”

“Only to use them as pawns against you.” Zoya replied sharply, fishing out a dark blue hair ribbon. She tied back her braid and her sleeve slid down to reveal the amplifier embedded in her skin. The wound had festered and rotted for years, but such was the price to pay for such power.

What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men.

The greed of the Darkling has no end. He will never be satisfied. We are all just his means for an end. A way forward for his conquest of power.

Alina’s gaze locked on Zoya once more. “Do it. Go back and tell him we submit. Tell him that…” She closed her eyes. “That I’ll allow him to put the antlers on me.”

“Alina-” Genya grabbed Alina’s hand. “No.. no, please… no.” She sobbed weakly. “He’ll break you.”

“She’s right, Sunshine.” Nikolai growled as he sat up. “You’d be his slave forever. I can’t lose you.”

“You’d be dead!” Alina sobbed. “Both of you!” The rage of weeks, months spilled out of her, causing the shadows at their feet to rear back in fright. Light surrounded the three of them, bathing them all in its incandescent glow. She shook her head, the cold freezing her tears in their ducts. “I won’t let it happen. I’ll… think of something.” She gripped Nikolai’s shaking hands in her own, and pressed her face into the expanse of his shoulder blade.

“Are you certain, Alina?” Zoya asked softly, leaning over them once more. The light shining around the three of them bathed Zoya in the dimness of a new dawn, and her deep blue eyes reminded Alina of uncut sapphires.

“Yes.” She replied, her voice breaking. All of the hopes to be the first to take back the stag, to win against the Darkling once and for all, were dashed. She hung her head, and wept unabashed tears of defeat. The fight drained from her in that instant, and she felt Nikolai kiss her forehead. He murmured something against her eyelids, tears dripping down his face.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.”

Those were the last words Alina heard before she was pulled under by one of the Darkling’s heart renders lowering her pulse.

Alina woke in darkness.

In a sense. There were sputtering candles, but the dimness of a low heart-rate, pounding head and blurred vision made them glow like distant stars. She stretched out an arm and felt her knees buckle. Her face smashed into a rug of woven threads. She was tired - so, so tired. Rage, and the cost of fighting this endless race against the wretched Black heretic was getting her nowhere. He would win. He was stronger, older and wiser than she was.

Where the hell is this coming from?

Alina shook her head, knowing these thoughts of defeat were not hers, could not be. She had hoped this doubt had been behind her after all of these months under Nikolai’s care. She’d been shedding the skin of the little, frail girl she’d been. It was only upwards from here, right?

No. You’re back in his clutches. What will he do to you for this transgression?

Alina knew what was going to pass, knew instantly the cold, sickening bite of the antlers around her neck. A chokehold. She could feel the antler tips pressed to the fragile skin around her collar bone and brushing her chin. She knew what an amplifier did to a grisha’s skin - it dug in deep and the power fed into one’s very veins. Sickening their mortal bodies to open them up to the powers they needed to stave off death . There had always been the argument in Grisha theory that an amplifier strengthened a Grisha, sanctifying their craft with godly purity.

In reality, it weakened them. Broke them. To remove an amplifier was to strip their power from them. Alina had seen the greyness under Nikolai’s skin. The Darkling had first infected him and given him the amplifier when it was still an animal. He must’ve killed it and fused the bones to his wrist. Somehow, it had broken and fallen from Nikolai. His half-deathly pallor in the low light of morning showed just how sick he was.

What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men. What is Infinite? The Universe and the greed of m-

Her thoughts broke, scattering like petals in a gale with the sounds of low, pained moans. At the other end of the space before her, the door - no, tent flaps - parted, and in stepped the Darkling. He had Nikolai’s hands bound in chains. His shirt-sleeves were pushed up to reveal the black veins of his arms.

But it was his face that broke Alina’s heart. Blood trickled from a wound in his temple, and his face was blackened and blued from angry fists. She glared at the Darkling’s Corporalki guards, baring her teeth. Finally, she noted the Fabrikator with them - David Kostyk.

Genya’s sweetheart. He was fiddling with his glasses lens, wiping them on the hem of his kefta , and adjusting his dark mane of hair. His kefta’s sleeves were pristine… something that Alina had never seen once in her time at the Little Palace. She felt confused, terrified. What was Nikolai here for? To witness the Darkling shoving the antlers around her neck, to witness the removal of her power? If he wanted her acceptance, he had it already.

“Alina.”

Her gaze snapped to the ink black eyes of the Darkling. The endless depths of his pupils and irises dragged her into his thrall. She shook her head, bowing her head. “N-no.” She whispered. “P-please, no.”

“Alina!”

That focused her gaze. She looked up once more, tears beading in her eyes. “I am not going to kill him. Nor the tracker.” The Darkling’s gaze was almost kind. Almost . The hint of something dark and endless danced behind his pupils. “You surrendered. You came willingly. You accepted your sins as merely a girlish mistake. I am proud of you.”

I am proud of you.

Alina shivered. Not once had Baghra said that. Nor Ana Kuya. She had never heard anyone say to her that they were proud of her. No one had ever said it. She’d never received a scrap of love in her life, or from any sort of fellow figure of authority. And now…

Saints, how she almost believed him. She hungered to go back into his embrace, if this would be what awaited her. She could see herself once more, his pet , his beloved Sun Summoner. She could easily submit, turn her back on the Little Palace and its cliques, rule at his side, rule-

Nikolai! A small part of her mind screamed suddenly. If you go with the Darkling, he’ll be gone! Forever!

Maybe not. Maybe he’ll stay… be an advisor of sorts. Or he’ll go back to First Army and go quietly… A small, girlish voice begged. Alina realised it was her… before she’d met Nikolai, before all of this.

ARE YOU STUPID? The other part of her screamed. The only place he’s going is hell! The Darkling will kill him to make an example and make sure that you are so utterly broken, you’ll let him pour whatever nice words you want down your throat so that by the time the mask comes off, you’ve obliterated half of Ravka!

Alina flinched, imagining her power in the hands of the Darkling. She could see the fires burning from Os Alta to Kiribirsk, cutting a swathe of death and suffering. The power would not be hers, it would never. She would be all his, in name and word if not…

Body. He had made no uncertainties of his desires to have a romantic relationship with her, despite being thousands of years older. Despite her only being 17. Despite the obvious power imbalances… all of it. He wished to possess, to control her.

“Well?” The Darkling asked, tapping his booted toe against the floor of the raised platform his tent had been pitched upon. “Do you wish to renounce your sins, to come once more into the embrace of the Little Palace?” He stepped forward and tilted her head up. She skirted her gaze to Nikolai, to see her prince so broken, so wounded. This was a trap the too-clever fox couldn’t escape.

Not without help. Not without a lockpick and a few prayers. She settled her gaze upon the Darkling once more. “Not without one condition.”

The Darkling gave a lazy sort of smile, a one to lure prey in. The kind of movement a cobra made before it killed its target. Alina bared her teeth once more. “State your treatise, little Saint , and I will decide whether or not to meet it.”

“Nikolai is granted full pardon. He will be allowed to leave Ravka and come as he wishes. He will not be brought into whatever plans you decide to operate. He will be allowed a life you and I will never gain.”

She licked her lips, panting. Rage and the fight to survive had exhausted her.

“And what if he simply escapes across the True Sea to another place? Another time? We found this map on him-” The Darkling produced the map Nikolai had been studying in the Costa’s longboat. “He could simply go anywhere. Raise an army against us.”

“Then…” Alina’s gaze hardened. “Let him. Let him go against you. Saints know Ravka deserves a change from a thousand years of your festering rot creeping in under the floorboards.” She reared back, the chain that bound her legs snapping with her movement. The strike of the cobra’s fangs missed .

“David!” The Darkling shouted. “Undo the Prince’s chains.”

David’s eyes widened with fear. Alina stilled. What is he planning? She thought as the Darkling stepped over to the richly appointed sideboard and peeled off his gloves. He signalled to Feydor and Ivan, who gave him surprised, almost shocked glances. But they agreed to whatever pre-planned idea the shadow summoner had in hand, and raised their hands. Alina’s pulse dropped, but not enough to put her under. She grunted, her fingers twitching. Nikolai was shoved into position beside her, and his hand wrapped tight around hers. The momentary warmth of the contact was immediately poisoned as the Darkling had Genya - poor, ruined and wounded Genya - undo the shawl around Alina’s neck that hid the antlers. In the dim lamplight, they shone molten silver, and refracted the light back.

“I’m sorry.” Nikolai began. “I’m so, so sorry, Alina.” He whispered. She stilled. “W-why?” She breathed. “Why are you so-”

She was never given a chance to ask her question. David’s trembling hands touched the antlers at the planned joining point of the two pieces, while the Darkling’s hand gripped the upper tips in his slender, pale hands.

He closed his eyes, and the process began.

It was excruciating . As the antlers sunk into Alina’s flesh, they cut the skin and tissues of her collarbone and fused to her bones. The collar had no clasp, no endpoint. It was fused into her tissue, bound up in the very strands that made her… her. The moment passed with the agonising slowness of a bullet being removed from a wound - not that Alina had ever had it happen to her, but the screams of the wounded wormed their way under her skin regardless. She hoped, for a moment, as nothing happened, that the Darkling had gotten it all wrong.

But a whine from Nikolai showed her the wrongness of her hope. Her eyes flew open, and she clapped a hand over her mouth. In her moment of foolishness, she had grabbed his hand and wounded his hand from the pain. But… this was no mere whine of a trod upon foot. He looked sick, weak. As though the mere moments of weakness she had seen in his body were magnified.

“Summoners are the only Grisha capable of removing another’s power.”

Removing another’s power? She thought mutely. Both the Darkling and David looked no more different than they had moments ago, but Nikolai…

“Your hand in his caused the power surge to rend his powers from him.”

What?! Alina thought, her mind screeching to a halt. “W-what?” She breathed. She looked at her prince, felt his hand once more in hers. His skin was cold, clammy. Fever burned in his face. He had never been a healthy boy… but his Durast powers had been his stop-gap from illness, from the decay of whatever the Darkling had put inside him.

“Why?!” She cried suddenly.

“He could never be allowed to roam free, Alina.” The Darkling tutted, his face gleaming with a triumphant smile. He looked every inch a man who had just won a game of cards and walked away from the table leaving the other in crippling debt. “Now, he is merely nothing. A prince. A second son, too weak even to do any-”

Nikolai’s hand shot out and he yanked the Darkling by the jugular. “Shut up.” He growled. Sweat dripped down his temple. He was shaking with the effort, with the exhaustion. “St-”

He pitched to the ground. The Darkling leapt aside and nodded at Ivan. “Good job.”

“Thank you, Moi Soverenyi .”

“See that he is put on the first troop transport back to Os Alta at once.”

Alina’s eyes widened and she dropped to her knees beside Nikolai. “Please, please, no!” She cried, shaking his body. He gave a low, dying moan “R-run.” He whispered, his fingers twitching. “Run, Alina.”

Tears formed in Alina’s eyes as she pressed her head against his side. “I’m so sorry.” She cried. Sobs wracked her, blurring her vision as she wrapped her arms around him. “So, sorry.” She pressed her cheek to his, and felt his pulse dropping

Ivan and Feydor pulled them apart. Alina bucked wildly, lashing out like an animal. She kicked her feet and lashed out, baring her teeth. Screams tore themselves from her throat. “YOU MONSTER!” She cried at the Darkling as she was put back on her feet. Dimly, she watched Nikolai be carried out by First Army stretcher bearers. Bowing over at the waist, Alina tugged at the stag’s antlers and sobbed at the blood that coated her hands.

“W-why?” She wept.

The Darkling's hand returned to touching the antlers, and Alina screamed as Nikolai had. Light poured from her, framing her face. It was as gold as a prince’s hair, and as wild as the roaring ocean that he so loved.

But it was not hers. It would never again be hers to control.

The Darkling smiled, but his eyes were full of pain.

“He was no good for you, Alina. Men like him are no more than spring flowers. Beautiful in their blossoms, but so quick to fade. He will be a mere flash in the night sky, while you will be eternal. He would only break your heart.”

Through her reddened eyes and blurry gaze, Alina spoke with full malice, full rage.

“I would rather live knowing he will die in a month’s time than share my bed with you.”

The Darkling stepped back, and the light faded out, the tent returning to its dimness. He turned toward the exit, and had Zoya, who had stood by the doorway witnessing it all, wave her hand. The light snuffed out at once, and she departed with the man who had ripped Alina’s power from her.

Alina’s legs buckled, and she fell to the floor once more. She dimly crawled into the space Nikolai had laid in, and curled into a ball. She dragged the wool shawl over her shoulders, pressed her face into her hands and cried. Once more, fate had dealt her a cruel hand, and she would bear the burden.

Distant from her, Nikolai’s form was carried not to the waiting first aid cart, but to the grouping of buildings who made up this outpost of snow-covered tents and rotting buildings. It had been here that Nikolai had tapped into the merzost that had saved Dominik three years before. In the dim light, He was carried into the main barracks mess hall. The space was clear of tables except for a single one. Awaiting him was a first Army surgeon, a corporal, and a woman wearing a mourning sarafan and button boots.

“Go.” She croaked. The stretcher bearers bowed, and departed. The surgeon turned to his aid. The colonel shooed him away from Nikolai’s body, and instead began to unbutton Nikolai’s bloodied tunic. “Nik…” He whispered.

Nikolai’s face grimaced in pain. “Dom…” He breathed, his voice as light as a moth's wing. “H-help,"

“We will, old boy.” Dominik replied. He nodded at the woman in the mourning gown, and she pushed back her veil to reveal a mane of inky black curls so like her son’s. “The Little Saint has been careless, but there is still enough here to save. I will need time alone with him.” She indicated Dominik and Nikolai, then looked at the surgeon.

“Your services are not required.” She jerked her head toward the door. The Surgeon bowed and left, his aid trailing him. As soon as the door was locked, the 22nd Regiment’s elite soldiers stepped in front of every possible entrance, threw tarps over the windows.

Their major was wounded, nearing the inky blackness of death. But they would die before allowing him to cross the Styx. As the woman helped Dominik tear off his tunic, Nikolai spoke.

“Baba?” He whimpered.

“I’m here, my boy. Always.” Baghra kissed his knuckles and stroked her hand over his face. “Always here, when no one else would be.” She replied. “My poor son.”

Dominik froze, but continued to work. Nikolai’s healing took precedence over his lineage. He of all people, knew that. Turning back to the mending of Nikolai’s broken and scarred body, Dominik began to pray.

“Sankts, give us hope. Bring us not unto temptation, but saveth the man who layeth before me. Bring him not into your embrace, not yet. He has fought long and hard, but it is not his time.”

The same prayer was whispered over Alina’s slumbering form by Zoya and Genya, who carried Alina to her bed and cocooned her in blankets. The same prayer echoed in the words of Nikolai’s men, of the Grisha who had come to like Alina, even as the Darkling sat in his tent and penned a letter to the Apparat to be ready and waiting in Kirbirsk.

If the Saints were able to walk amongst mortals, they would discover how feverishly the intonation to protect the weak and dying was spoken. How desperate mere mortals were to save a little boy and girl who had seen more horrors in their short lives than their ancestors saw in decades.

Alina faintly heard her friend’s prayers, and in reply, reached out a trembling hand. She was too deeply asleep to stir, but somehow she felt that Nikolai was in pain, nearing the end.

“Nikolai..” She breathed. A faint shimmer of light flickered from her hand, before dying out.

All across the camp, the candle-lanterns and oil lamps snuffed out.

End of chapter 7.

#fic: I don't want to set the world on fire #shadow and bone #nikolai lantsov #alina starkov #nikolina #wyn rambles #the darkling #genya x david #Baghra #Dominik Vertov #Isaak Andreyev

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sygneth · 1 year ago

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Hi, how are you doing?I really wonder about 19 and 20 ^^. And maybe 38 too, if its not too much. I hope you are having a good day!!

19. Favourite thing about the day

There's another one actually! I like it very much, when it's summer, I'm on my dacha with my family and I wake up early in the morning, when everyone else is still asleep. I can sneak out to the kitchen, make myself some coffe and go to the terrace and just sit there with noone but me, the birds and the fresh, chilly morning air.

20. Favourite thing about the night

I think my favourite moments in the night are those, when I know I don't need to wake up early in the morning, so I let myself dive deep into some research, it's 3 am, I have a tone of different notes, 228 tabs open in my browser, books are everywhere, and I get out to the balcony to refreshen my brain and try to look at the stars. I think overall, my most favourite thing about the night are stars and the moon <3

#asks #ask games #lazymarmar #thanks for the ask!!#have a great day too!

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dachafiend · 11 months ago

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recently acquired bisexual-flag colored gradient sunglasses, and every time I wear them I feel like a grizzled fiftysomething year-old detective who is also a Tumblr babygirl. you've discoed in the wrong Elysium, fellas.

#harry du bois coded #disco elysium #notes on dacha

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sweet-cha · 3 months ago

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Feed Me Button Frenzy

Ft: Jack, Nick, Shaun, Ian, Joseph

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

//NSFW content down below// +18 only

Writer's note: The feed me button works a bit different in this au since dacha pet is kinda like a 18+ visual novel stuffed in a tamagachi so raising certain affection points activates the feed me button, which once unlock you can use however you want. There eyes can glow in feed me mode as well just wanted to add in here. Also I apologize in advance if lines are cringe to read 💀

Warnings: Dirty talk, Mention of degrading, Small collar and leashes mention in (Shaun's and Nick's part) Breeding Kink, Primal Prey, Predator x prey kink, Praise, Tons of Pet names, Cringey Roleplay ( Ian) Typical talk of gentailia being used?. Pet play, Dom/Sub Dynamics, Voice Kink

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

Snake-Pup Jack 💙🐶🐍

≻───── ⋆✩⋆ ─────≺

💙 His fur/scales are visible around his chest, arms, and lower stomach. Hair becomes more fluffed out and is slightly longer. Fangs are visible, as well as him having cute little stickers in certain spots of his body.

💙 Personally doesn't change much besides him having way more suggestive dialogue hinting at the naughty things he wants to do you. Unfortunately the dialogue filters screws him over so.. Your going have to deal with the most interesting innuendos of all time.

💙 Will not stop praising how good you would feel once he's inside you. Constantly making comments about how he wants to feel your warmth from the inside.

💙 Jack enjoys seeing you squirm from his words alone and is quite satisfied seeing how much he has an affect on you. He'll even encourage you to be more vocal on how badly he affects you to.

💙 Ears, and chest are really sensitive. He'll whimper softly and ask you to keep going. If you decide to click over to were his cock is he'd just smirk at you before grabbing the cursor and purposely taking it from you to tease you further.

💙 He will lower his voice when saying certain things to get a rise outta you

💙 Calls you sunshine, Sun-pup, Sunspot, My Sun Beam,Sundrop

💙 7 ' 3 inched cock with a blue happy trail

💙 If your more so on sub side of things good luck he'd see as a game of cat and mouse him wanting you to spill every hidden desire you have for him. Even down to straight up admitting how you him to take control and have his way with you.

💙 If more on the dominate side jack is a huge brat he's not letting himself become so submissive that easily, he will give you a hard time but praises throughout the whole thing and eventually let's you win.

💙 Loves talking about markings his territory ( you) by leaving love bites and hickies. He wouldn't mind if give the same sentiment back afterall.

💙 Any type of colorful outfit gets him going especially if it's socks or gloves.

Jack's Voices lines 💙

" It's okay sun pup you can touch anywhere you want ~ " 💙

" Aw, You look so cute getting all flustered like that sunshine~ 💙

" Come closer I don't bite unless you ask me to~ 💙

" I love a good game of hide and seek where you hide and I find you~ 💙 "

" My sunspot I long to feel every part of you until you can't take it anymore~💙 "

》* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • 。* 。° 。* 。 • ˚《

Cheeta-Cat Shaun 💜🐆

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

💜 Shaun has cheeta print littered all over his body and his whiskers become more prominent. His locs at the ends has a mixture of blue and purple. Fur is around his chest and arms. Definitely have sharp fangs Unties his hair for " reasons.

💜 He just become more teasy and cheeky might I add. He go straight into teasing you about wanting his second form but he understands fully why you were so curious about it. Though he's a lot more subtle about his desires at first.

💜 All about the foreplay. Down to saying the most filthy yet sweet nothings that drives you insane.

💜 Is totally aware of his voice being quite attractive so he'll use it his advantage making his voice all sensual and sultry like with a slight purr near the end.

💜 Shaun talk about potentially having matching collars with you even a leash if your really into that.

💜 He loves thigh high socks especially the really cute ones on himself and you. Wouldn't mind cute ones with ribbons as well.

💜 He's mostly going to call you kitty, kitten(fight me), my darling, Starlight, Moon light, good boy/girl, pet

💜 7 ' 5 inched cock with a dick piercing. With a blue and purple happy trail

💜 He's mostly sensitive were his ears is along with his lower abdomen where his bat wing tattoo is located. Using the curse touching his cock is only going to be your punishment. He's gonna take it away and put it somewhere you can't reach calling you a brat being so eager for him.

💜 Shaun is more dominate leaning so he enjoys making you feel you have the upper hand only for him to pin you down completely smirking at your flustered reaction and squirming around like how a brat should especially when his face is close to the screen.

💜 Talks about leaving bite marks in areas only he knows where they are.

Shaun's Voice Lines 💜

" Come here kitty and sit on my lap~ 💜"

" Touch me again and see what happens brat!~💜"

" Wanna guess which part of me likes getting your kisses the most darling💜~

" Be a good kitten, turn around with your face down and ass up for me~💜 "

" Ready to be pounced on like prey tonight kitten~💜"

꒷︶꒷꒥꒷‧₊˚꒷︶꒷꒥꒷‧₊˚

Deer-Bunny Ian 🧡🐰

✩.･*:｡≻───── ⋆♡⋆ ─────.•*:｡✩

🧡 The fluffiest fluff to ever exist around his chest and arms. He has heart shaped deer freckles on his face, arms and ass. His hair is complete long and curls at the ends. His skin has a nice glow it down to his fur.

🧡 Well he becomes quite needy and clingy saying all sorts lewd things. Ian isn't sugar coating his desires at all he's going full out about it. He calls you pervy for wanting to see him like this but encourages the behavior.

🧡 Roleplay is a big key factor for him so expect him taking roles you mostly want in a sorta cringey hentai manga kinda way but he does it so well so gets a pass. Most roles would be cute nerdy best friend, childhood friends to lovers with a hint of being each other firsts time and maybe perverted nerd if you squint.

🧡 Surprisingly he's quite confident about his voice being attractive to a certain crowd. He knows how whimpery and pathetic it sounds, along how he be a total tease with enough praising.

🧡 Ian lowkey want to breed you and for you to potentially do the same to him. Makes him feral but he totally understand if that's not your thing and will settle with wanting to feel you up to the brim.

🧡 May also have a thing for thigh socks as well and wouldn't mind wearing it for you, as well as collars as well.

🧡 8 " 0 inched dick with light happy trail

🧡 Mostly sweet pet names like little bunny, honey, honey bun, baby

🧡 His long bunny ears are incredibly sensitive he'll you to pull tell them slightly, though he might encourage you to pull his hair too. When it comes to taking the cursor down south he doesn't stop you and moans for you to continue touching him until he cums.

🧡 Ian is more like a switch loves when you tell him what to do and boss him around. Make him a whimpering mess for all he cares. In return that doesn't mean he isn't going get his fill with you being receiving end of things. His breath is going fog up the screen at this point.

🧡 He prefers if you gave him love, bites and mark him up in any place you desire

Ian's Voice lines 🧡

" Wanna mate like bunnies till were both entangled with one another~🧡"

" We're like a dounut and cream little bunny, I wanna be on top of you while I fill you up with some of my cream~ 🧡 "

" You taste so sweet like honey honey bun~ 🧡"

" You and me baby were nothing but my mammals so let's do it how they would on discovery channel~🧡 "

" Wanna taste of my carrot, I guarantee you'll like the flavor once it's ripe~ 🧡 "

•┈┈┈••✦ ♡ ✦••┈┈┈•

Snow Leopard-Bear Nick 💙🐻

✩*⢄⢁✧ --------- ��⡈⡠*✩

💙 His fur is thick around his chest and arms that is littered with leopard spots. Fangs are a bit on sharper side, and his hair is slightly longer.

💙 That's were his dominate persona steps in he can be alluring, sensual and a down right smooth talker. He's quite the tease similar to Shaun but he is more sly with his word choices. He still doesn't change much though he keeps looking at you with a glint in his eyes.

💙 He's into more rougher things like teasing you about tying you up and making you beg for him. Possibly wanting to collar you as well. If you act like a brat he's all for it makes his smirk widen even more.

💙 His voice may not be deep like Shaun's but he's really good at throwing his voice around making you feel your going bust on spot. He definitely is aware if you have a voice kink for sure.

💙 He wants to see you tied up and exposed for him even if he can't physically do that. Though he won't admit that he likes seeing the flustered look on your face he says things like that

💙 Has a tongue piercing as well

💙 7 ' 1 inched Cock with a dick

piercing

💙 Nick would call you My dove, Songbird, darling, Dewdrop

💙 His chest is most sensitive part of his body. Using his the coursor to touch his dick doesn't have effect on him really he just grabs it and tells you to continue what you started don't get all shy on him now.

💙 Chains, whips, bondage, you name it and he has it all. This man is a full time dom hell even be down for some wax play as well. Your not getting him in a submissive space even if you try hard enough.

💙 Marks your neck, chest and thighs and is proud of it.

Nick's Voice Lines 💙

" I wanna see you spread more than your wings my dove~ "

" My face between your thighs is my type of physical touch~ 💙 "

" Why don't you sing for me my songbird~ 💙"

" Should I tie you up and watch you completely unravel for me~ 💙 "

" Still hungry? Don't worry I'll give you something satisfying have satisfied all night long my Dewdrop~"

♫♪.ılılıll|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llılılı.♫♪

Lone Wolf Joseph ❤🐺

➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶

❤ Has thick brown fur around his chest and arms. His fangs are quite sharp. Eyes are a light red to the usual brown.

❤ More vocal about his desires that every. Completely aware about what the feed me button does and blames you if end up liking him like this however is a bit self conscious about it. Though now you have to deal with him constantly looking at you as if he's about to devour you.

❤ His voice become more raspy and sorta deep still has an effect on you either way so he won't complain. Might have to take a break from talking to him because you're going to be left hot and bothered for a good while.

❤ He's in middle he likes talking dirty to you with some rough play into it but still likes being soft with you since he more longer has that cold exterior. Though he's going make it known he's checking you out.

❤ Joseph is really into saying how much he wants you in doggy style. Or how he wants you to be slightly scaroused when wants to chase you as prey.

❤ 7 ' 3 inched cock with thick brown happy trail.

❤ Calls you his Sweetheart, Sunshine, Doll face, My love

❤ Ears are the most sensitive out of all of them touching his ears to much will cause him to take your cursor privilege away and smirk as he watches you pout. If you decide to be sneaking moving the cursor to his dick well let's just say he gives a smirk before using the cursor in a up and down motion to get him off while he makes full eye contact.

❤ Wouldn't opposed if you decided to peg him down a notch if you dare. Especially with how tried he would potentially make you.

❤ Loves claiming your neck and chest makes him feel more feral that way

Joseph's Voice lines ❤

" Wanna go in the woods and howl non stop at the moon~ ❤ "

" I'll give my bone tonight doll face~ ❤ "

" Want to go to pound town with me tonight? I'll be the one doing the pounding if you can't, all you gotta do is ask sweetheart~❤

" Your legs would look better spread against my shoulder sunshine~ ❤ "

" Keep yanking my chain and see what happens next~❤ "

✩.･*:｡≻───── ⋆♡⋆ ─────.•*:｡✩

#swwsdj #sdj #sunny day jack #sdj jack #sdj ian #sdj nick #sdj shaun #18+ mdni #dacha pet au

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theculturedmarxist · 1 year ago

Text

We come to Russia, to Petersburg for a lot more than the pleasures of High Culture. A bigger incentive is people, our good and long time friends here. I already mentioned in passing in my first installment that we met up with friends Masha and Ivan (names changed to protect their privacy) from Moscow who came here expressly for a get-together with us and with still another two-some who live here in the city center of Petersburg, Irina and Alexei.

Whether partly or fully retired from their lifelong professional positions, these people, through their own networks, are upstanding members of the intelligentsia in Russia’s two capitals. Ivan may no longer be president of the Moscow branch of the Union of Journalists, but he remains on the editorial board of their magazine and has administrative responsibilities in the university department of journalism. Irina may publish fewer articles today than in the past, but she performs public relations tasks on behalf of one of the clubs of Petersburg’s international friends headed by Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky. Then there are the publishers of the Russian editions of our books with whom we did not share a meal, but with whom we spent three very pleasant hours in their office talking about the state of the book trade and about a lot more.

The overarching conclusion from spending time with these friends, who could all in the past have been described as pro-Western in orientation, is that what Alexander Dugin and Dmitry Simes were saying in the interview on The Great Game that I described a couple of days ago is borne out: these friends now have very positive feelings about the direction the country is taking.

This is not to say that there is complete unanimity among us about what is going on in public life. On the one side, I heard the remark that ever tighter censorship is being imposed on journalism. On the other side, our publishers say that there is absolutely no censorship in the book trade. Of course, we put to one side the ban on sales of the author of the detective stories Boris Akunin and on the one-time Russian Booker Prize winner Ludmila Ulitskaya. Akunin has publicly stated that he donates royalties from his book sales to the Ukrainians and Ulitskaya has made damning remarks on the ‘Putin regime’ and on the country as a whole. In wartime, their removal from bookstores is something you could expect even in nominally free and open countries.

The impact of the war on the lives of our friends is clearest as regards the Petersburg pair. For the past twenty years they travel each summer to Crimea, where they own a patch of land and a tiny house on a hillside overlooking the port town of Feodosiya on the eastern shores of the peninsula. Last year there were Ukrainian drone and missile attacks on the town and they witnessed the midair destruction of these aircraft. One girl who was spending the night on a hillside to watch the dawn was killed by falling debris. As the countdown begins for their train journey to Crimea at the end of this month, they cannot avoid thinking about a possible Ukrainian missile strike on the Kerch bridge on which their train will be traveling for 20 minutes to reach the peninsula. Then there is the uncertainty about how intense the missile and drone attacks on Feodosiya will be this summer. The risks are low but they do not make for calm nerves, which is what you really want from a summer get-away. Some friends of theirs who are also owners of dachas on the hills above Feodosia have cancelled their travel plans, though others are proceeding to the Crimea as in the past.

*****

I have in previous installments spoken about goods. Now I will turn to services. The one we use daily is taxis and I direct attention to that.

We take taxis around town in Pushkin. But mostly we use them to drive into and from the Petersburg city center.

Back in the bad old days of generalized pauperdom in the 1990s, every jalopy Lada traveling down the street could be hailed and would take you wherever you were going for next to nothing. Forget seat belts! Forget suspension! Forget the rules of the road! The drivers, mostly coming from Central Asia, were free spirits.

Those days are long gone. Nobody today will stop to pick you up if you raise your hand curbside. Unoccupied taxis will not let you in, because they are all radio dispatched, waiting for their next order. And the business has really consolidated in the past couple of years, with many smaller taxi companies having been bought out and with Yandex, the Russian equivalent to Google, having taken a dominant if not monopolistic position in the Petersburg market. I assume Yandex is similarly placed across the country.

One result of Yandex scooping up all the cars and drivers is that when you place your order by phone you have no idea what will be the quality of the car and driver who arrives to pick you up. It may be a proper Yandex branded car in full livery, or it may be just an ordinary passenger car, often quite worn out, operated by a Yandex ‘partner.’ Placing your order via their App is a safer bet, because you see on your telephone what the car and driver look like and have veto power.

Measured in dollars or euros, the taxis operating in Petersburg are cheap. The cars must take in 8 – 10 euros per hour if they are fully engaged. Fares for a given trip are revised up or down depending on the computer projected time of the journey taking into account density of traffic. How much of the gross revenue is passed along to the driver depends on his relationship to the company: his contract may be for rental of the vehicle from the taxi company, or it may be that he provides the vehicle. Our Pushkin based taxi service competes with others when it posts a new passenger call, since any one driver may be under contract with several firms.

In the past, going back a dozen years, when there were only local taxi companies, you could do side deals with drivers to order their services directly, not going through the dispatcher. Back then and until quite recently, I found the drivers to be very chatty and a good source of all kinds of information about local politics, local gripes and so forth. The ride into Petersburg takes between 45 minutes and an hour and a half depending on the weekday and the time of travel, so there was plenty of time to ‘chew the fat,’ as we say.

With the recent professionalization or corporatization of taxis under the Yandex banner, drivers seem less approachable and I rarely strike up conversations with them. However, two days ago, in the last 5 minutes of our late evening drive from Petersburg center to our apartment in Pushkin, I asked the driver what he thought about the fancy and impressive top of the line Geely car we were in. It was as if he had been just waiting for the opportunity to share his concerns as he weighs the possibility of actually buying a Geely, not renting it from Yandex to raise his share of the fares.

The Geely, for those of you who are not familiar with Chinese brands, is one of the biggest Chinese manufacturers, with extensive operations outside China. Inter alia, they happen to be the owners of Sweden’s Volvo cars.

The ride in his Crossover was very comfortable, as you would expect in a car of this type. It was very easy to get into and to get out of. And the interior was up to date, with large a informational screen on the dashboard. However, the driver’s interests lay elsewhere, namely in service life, in resistance to rust (poor) and the robustness of the electronics (poor). Then there is the question of availability of spare parts, which, per his information can take up to two months to procure, and that is a real negative.

You see quite a few Geely cars on Petersburg streets these days, but still more Haval cars produced by China’s Great Wall Motors, Chery from the manufacturer of the same name, and Exeed.

Last night we traveled home from the city in a Yandex liveried Exeed, which also was noteworthy for passenger space and comfort, for good suspension and tight steering. Once again I decided to talk cars with the driver and he was delighted to oblige. By his face seen in profile, it was clear he himself came from one of the Chinese sphere of influence countries. But his Russian was perfect, and he clearly aims to make his future here.

He is satisfied with his Exeed, though he acknowledges there are potential problems with spare parts. We may assume that this will be resolved once the newly arrived Chinese brands build their dealerships and local inventory.

The experience of last night’s driver with his Exeed only goes back a couple of months. Before that he drove a Chery, also in the luxury car category. Its best and endearing feature was safety. He and the car parted company when someone crashed into him at a crossroads and the car was destroyed. However, the air bags worked perfectly and he walked away from the wreck without a scratch.

From this chap I picked up the observation that the Chinese entered the Russian market a couple of years ago with very cheap prices. However, when the South Korean manufacturers left Russia some months ago, the Chinese immediately steeply raised their prices. Chinese cars may still be priced below comparable West European brands like Mercedes, but that is only because Russian consumers pay a premium to import their Mercedes, etc. from third countries in parallel trade.

We may assume that Chinese manufacturers have found their new Russian market to be a boon. Here they can dispose of their internal combustion cars for which there is falling demand in their domestic market now that the Chinese public is turning to Electrical Vehicles in big numbers. In Russia there is virtually no demand for EVs, because there is virtually no charging infrastructure for private cars.

Finally, on the subject of cars and drivers, I say with conviction that the more expensive and comfortable the car, the better the taxi driver follows the rules of the road and shows courtesy to pedestrians. None is ‘racing a traffic light.’ None is flying over speed bumps. None is weaving between lanes. All of these bad habits that raise safety risks were common in the driving public before.

*****

Victory in Europe Day, 9th May, was celebrated this year like last, with only military parades that people watched at home on television. There were no Immortal Regiment parades that brought the broad public out onto the streets in the years leading up to the Special Military Operation. The risk of terror attacks put an abrupt end to the Immortal Regiment and that is sad.

On the positive side, this year it was common for strangers to congratulate one another with good wishes for the holiday. So it was with our taxi driver who took us to the late lunch/early dinner we shared with friends in the city center. This year you could see cars flying the red flag of Victory day with the same patriotic gusto that Americans show on the 4th of July when they drive around their towns.

Finally, I close out these Travel Notes with a remark on the big Russian attack on the Kharkov region that began yesterday and is still underway, said to be the biggest of its kind since the Special Military Operation began.

There is considerable speculation in the West on what this means. Some say the Russians will try to take the city in the coming days. Others say it is just a feint, to draw Ukrainian troops away from other sectors of the front, in particular, from the Donetsk region, where the Russians will stage their real offensive, seeking to capture the strategic town of Chasiv Yar that has been contested for months and open the way to the full liberation of the Donbas.

Following as I do the Russian state news, I emphasize that the Russians are presently not tipping their hand. They only report the names of the villages in the Kharkov region lying between the city and the border with Russia that they have taken in the past 24 hours. Consequently all that we can say at this point is that the Russian forces have de facto created a ‘sanitary zone’ from which the Ukrainians can no longer fire artillery , drones and short range missiles into the residential neighborhoods of the Belgorod region on the other side of the border, killing civilians and creating havoc as they have been doing for months.

#gilbert doctorow #russia #china #ukraine conflict #ukraine #leningrad #yandex #ev adoption

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