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windchimesgames · 2 years ago

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End of Year Recap + Plans for 2024

Hey everyone!

Belated Happy New Year to everyone! I know this is a very late end of year recap 😂Unfortunately, the past week ended up much busier for me than expected, so I could only get around to doing this now that things have calmed down a little.

This is a crosspost of a public post I made on Patreon a few days ago, so if you prefer the formatting there, you can read the post at this link:

PS: I do free monthly devlogs / posts there on Patreon, so consider joining the free tier of the Patreon even if you aren't interested in the paid tiers!

For those who'd rather read the post here, I'll leave the extraordinarily long ramble in a Read More cut below!

Let's start with a quick recap of the highlights / achievements accomplished in 2023!

Okay, this one may be slightly cheating. While Emberfate only launched on Steam in Jan 2023 so the 92 positive reviews came in in the year of 2023, it was up on Itch.io since mid 2022, so not all 383 Itch.io ratings came in in 2023.

Still, I'm pretty proud of these stats! Perhaps the numbers are nothing compared to some other amazing games' out there, but it's still something I'm proud of. It makes me happy that my silly experimental nostalgic little game struck a chord in so many players — much more than I expected given how niche the topic was!

Now, unfortunately, I could not get Emberfate's DLC for Potato's route out by end of 2023 like I had hoped. Porting the game to mobile also ended up much more difficult than I expected because of just how much of the UI I'm going to have to redesign — and hence, programming to be redone — if I wanted to make the game fit a small mobile screen. So both plans are going to have to be postponed to 2024.

The other notable highlight of 2023 is that both Lyrissa's and Kierdan's routes for Reanimation Scheme were released for beta access! That put the game at 3/5 routes complete, with a total of 431,786 words for the script.

I recruited a handful of beta testers to test the three completed routes a few months ago, and so far, the feedback has been positive overall. That's been a huge relief and lifted a massive weight off my chest — due to the controversial reception of the demo, I've been extremely anxious that the game would be hated by the players, and I've done so many rounds of editing and honestly perhaps somewhat unnecessary and obsessive rewriting of the script, but none of it felt good enough 😂 So hearing the positive comments has been a huge motivation / morale booster. Perhaps I should have done beta testing sooner… LOL

There are two more achievements unrelated to a specific game project that I'd like to mention:

2023 is the year that I became more interested in and better at Ren'Py programming! Most of it is thanks to my amazing programmer friend and Ren'Py wizard, Feniks (whom you may know as the programmer for Our Life series), who sparked my interest in programming and helped teach me a LOT. While I'm by no means a professional now at coding, I feel much more comfortable navigating around Ren'Py code and setting up what I need to in the backend of the games I'm developing, which opens up new doors for me for future projects in terms of what kind of features (big or small) that I may be able to include! Though the side effect of that is I looked back at the code I did for Reanimation Scheme from previous years and was immediately horrified by how ugly and inefficient it was. 😂I did redo the backend code of the Gallery and Achievements system a bit, but the rest will just have to stay for now.

I made quite a few new connections within the indie VN dev sphere in 2023! I made a shocking discovery that there's enough number of indie VN developers from Hong Kong to fill half a minibus, and I was lucky enough to connect with them and share our experiences and learn from each other! Due to new project commissions I took on for $$$ (real life financial needs suck), as well as a couple of small game jam projects I joined as programmer to buff up my programming portfolio, I also made some new VN dev friends unexpectedly. It's been really nice, because honestly, solo dev can be a really lonely and isolating endeavor sometimes. I'm super grateful for the new connections I found myself making in 2023!

Looking Ahead: 2024

Okay, that was a lot of rambling for the recap. More than I thought I would write. Now let's move forward to what the future will look like for this studio in 2024 and what goals I'm setting for myself this year!

Priority #1: Finishing Reanimation Scheme

Of course it's Reanimation Scheme. As mentioned above, we're currently at 3 out of 5 routes completed (sans partial voice acting). So the biggest goal for 2024 will be to get the game done. and out. Finally.

I won't be giving a concrete release date until we're like, literally in beta phase for all 5 routes, just so I won't have to announce a delay and let people down. But given the current progress and pace of work, I'd say probably around mid-year — maybe Q3 latest.

I'll be keeping up with the episodic updates of Reanimation Scheme's beta build on Patreon (and Kickstarter) from this month onwards, beginning with Jori's route and then followed by Sebastien's.

The remaining Kickstarter rewards may take a little longer — but ideally, all of them (artbook / lorebook / short stories collections, etc.) will be done by end of the year as well.

Priority #2: Potato's Route DLC for Emberfate

Potato, poor Potato. His DLC had to be put on the sidelines until Reanimation Scheme is done.

Half of the art has already been commissioned and completed by the amazing Remnantation — we're just missing his selfie CG & his MMO character sprite! So the next step would be the script and then the voice acting for the calls part. I won't be able to start on the script until mid-2024 earliest, but given the fact that his route won't be that long if it's parallel in length compared to the existing three routes, it probably won't take too long to do. Perhaps 2-3 months for the development process of the DLC?

I'll likely be releasing his DLC early on Patreon, potentially also episodically as it's completed, like I did with Emberfate. So if you're interested, keep an eye out for it when the time comes!

Something Secretly Brewing in the Shadows?

If you're pledged to this Patreon on $10 tier or above, you'll probably already know what I'm alluding to.

I won't be announcing or talking much about this for now, since I don't know when I'll be able to start working on this project properly (i.e. I need to meet my above two goals first). For all I know, it might end up being not a 2024 thing but a 2025 thing. So I'll only tease it slightly for now here.

Bonus Goal: Market, for the Love of God

If you follow Wind Chimes Games on either Twitter or Tumblr, you'll probably have noticed the sorry state of my social media. I… really do not like marketing or posting on social media. I never know what to post or say. I'm too unfunny and uncreative to meme or write humorous captions that get engagement. 😂It kind of feels like I'm shouting into the void, and nobody really cares about what I have to say on my projects when there's so many cooler and more interesting things out there. So I always try for a brief period of time, and then I give up 😭

This year though, I really really need to take marketing more seriously. With two releases planned for 2024, marketing is going to be important if I want the games to sell more than like 20 copies LOL

So I guess, uh, hold me to it and call me out if I don't start posting regularly after all 🥹

Conclusion

If you've made it this far on this post, thank you so much for listening to me ramble. 🥹 2024 is going to be a very busy year, but hopefully, a productive one that will end with me meeting all of the above listed goals.

Thank you so much for joining me on the wild and bumpy journey that was 2023, and I hope you'll stick around for the exciting things to come this year too! Here's to a great year ahead of all of us!

#otome #visual novel #interactive fiction #dating sim #otome game #otoge #if #vn #english otome #english otome game #indie otome #renpy #lgbtq #english visual novel #amare #reanimation scheme #emberfate #announcement

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malcolmsmackwell-blog · 2 years ago

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As I have occasionally in the past, I want to reply to a few very similar asks, and rather than writing the same thing to a number of people, I thought perhaps posting one response here for all to see and read would be a better way of going about things. So..........Discipline and Punishment. Same or different,

For me, and I can only speak for myself and how I prefer to go about things, they are similar enough to be considered as linked, but are not exactly the same.

Discipline is the "full picture", so to speak. It's the daily routine, dress code if there is one, the agreed/fixed bedtime, the completion of allocated chores or sitting down to do her school homework etc. All the elements agreed on by both parties for the little girl to lead a constructive, fulfilling life within whatever boundaries have been set for her.

Punishment is what happens when she breaks those agreed boundaries or fails to stick to agreed rules, routine, procedures or however you prefer to describe it. Essentially, if it has been agreed that 2+2=4, and she's trying to make 2+2=3, or 5, or what have you, then Punishment follows. But the discipline is what decides that the correct answer is 4 in the first place.

And while I'm at it, punishment doesn't need to be limited to spanking either. Corner time, writing lines, being sent to bed ridiculously early, loss of privileges, grounding, etc can all be effective without a single smack landing on her bottom. The idea is to give her something she doesn't like and doesn't want to repeat, or remove something she does like (Internet access, chatting on her phone, favourite TV programme or whatever) to discourage having to go through the same process again in future. It's more long winded to grounding her for a week than it is to redden her little bottom for her, but as a "genuine" or "real time" punishment for unwanted/unacceptable behaviour, it can be just as effective, if not more so.

"Sometimes a red face can be a more effective deterrent than a red bottom".

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max-praise-archive · 1 year ago

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youtube

Toto Wolff opens up on what life without Lewis Hamilton will be like 👀🏎️ | Aus GP 🏁 | Fox Motorsport (8:16 - 12:25)

Q: Do you think having Max in your car right now would add to performance? No. He's extraordinary. But we would give him a car that's a handful, difficult to set up and drive. I'd rather make that step and be out there and say this is a car you could drive because it's going fast. Q: Do you think that you're going to have a decision on that anytime soon? What is the timeframe around actually knowing who that person is going to be next to George? We were taken aback by Lewis' decision so quickly, now I want to really take my time. We have a slot free. The only one in the top teams, unless Max decides he goes, then the slot is not gonna be free with us anymore. There are a few options that are really interesting for us. From the very young super talent, to some of the other ones who are very experienced, and that's not gonna happen in the next few weeks or a month or so. I want to continue to monitor the market. Q: So when is it likely that you'll have a decision? Is it something that you do post season at the end of the year? Towards the summer. Q: Will George's performance influence the decision that you make, ultimately on the teammate that he'll have? No, he's a bank. He's having that seat. He has been part of our junior programme for a long time. The reason why is because he's great. It's about the second seat. Q: But by that I mean, if George can perform this year you'll look for someone that is younger and less experienced to be second to him or perhaps if it doesn't go his way, do you need to offer experience? Well, I don't know yet. It depends also what Max does. Then we have a young kid that is very promising. Don't want to put more extra pressure on him but it looks like he can be one of the great ones. But we also don't want to drown him jumping so quickly in an F1 car by 17. There's a few options that we could play with. Obviously there's Fernando, who's very exciting. And Carlos, very good. So there's a few ones. Q: You have a huge decision to make, don't you? Yeah, but this time I'm going to play like the bride: difficult to get. Q: Excellent. You had an opportunity to sign Max before he signed for Red Bull. How do you look back on that time now? Is he the one that got away? I mean, like I said, hindsight is a beautiful thing. You know a lot about us. Yeah, I've seen him in Formula Three and he was very good. And I have a good relationship with his father. So we sat down in my home in Vienna and said what can we do? I wasn't able to give him a Formula One seat. I said let's do F2 together, it was GP2 back in the day. We fully fund it and then I'll guarantee a seat next year in the car. And they said well, we have an offer from Red Bull for an Alpha Tauri basically from now on. That was it. I knew that we wouldn't be able to compete with it. Half into the season, he replaced another driver in Red Bull and took the seat and here we go. He's a three time world champion. Q: So there it's a little bit poetic between you two then if you were able to snatch Max, it would sort of come full circle considering what you've been through together. Exactly. It's always the kind of relationship that needs to happen at a certain stage. But we don't know when. Q: He's your number one pick? Yes, I mean, you see what his performance levels are, but I wouldn't want to discount the other ones too. We have to look at ourselves and say what is it we can do with this car, and then it becomes much easier whoever drives the second car. It becomes much easier for George, because he has the potential of being a world champion. Much more the team's problem to solve than really looking for a silver bullet with an amazing driver. Q: Well Toto I'm wishing all the best for the Australian Grand Prix. You're not promising anything but you've come from behind much further down the grid so anything is possible in Formula One. Thanks for joining us on Fox Sports and all the best for the rest of the year. Thank you very much.

March 25, 2024 youtube.com Archive link | Original link

#max verstappen #toto wolff #Fox Sports #2024 #March 2024 #original source #Youtube #video #Fox Sports Australia

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late-to-the-fandom · 2 years ago

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Renathal would have stormed up to the castle then and there and demanded answers of Denathrius, refused to leave until he had them, were it not for the… extenuating circumstances… Read on Ao3 here.

The Prince of Revendreth stalked up the walk to Darkwall Tower in a thunderous mood. Every minute of the last slow and unsatisfactory day had been spent extinguishing the metaphorical fires set by his disastrous court.

The first half had been occupied by a steady stream of meetings with his well-placed sources throughout the realm, all confirming his reputation had taken quite the blow. The nobility considered him to have gone soft in recent years, while the rest complained he catered too much to the nobility - something about the low number of invitations extended to the Venthyr working class. After which, he was forced to make the long trek to the Halls of Atonement and endure a tirade about his court’s anima waste from the irate Accuser, who had not even bothered to attend.

“Courts and flowing fonts and frivolities while the realm bleeds anima!”

Renathal had done his utmost to keep a diplomatic demeanour -

“The Sire is now overseeing the anima conservation programme himself. I am sure a change in fortune is on the way.”

“And what is he doing with all this conserved anima? Our tithes and tributes have tripled and yet we see no aid!”

- but his nerves were highly strung.

“Ask him,” Renathal had snapped.

“You think I have not tried?” The Accuser’s laugh was a high, bitter scoff. “I apply to Nathria for an audience daily and am refused. The Master is far too busy, they say. Busy with what, exactly? What is he doing holed up in the castle?”

That was the question. And one the Dark Prince could not answer. Little though he liked to admit it, he did not know his Master’s mind. Renathal had not seen Denathrius since first receiving his mortal assignment, and, for one of few times in his whole existence, he was not eager for an audience, though his fear of a summons grew with every passing hour and accounted for most of why he was so tightly wound.

“It is none of our concern,” he declared. “He is the Sire. All of Revendreth is his purview. Ours is simply to trust him.”

“Perhaps you trust too blindly, Renathal,” was the Accuser’s dour reply, and Renathal’s patience had buckled.

“Perhaps you are too familiar, Harriett.”

Unpleasant surprise momentarily stymied the Accuser, but she recovered herself quickly.

“Very well then. Your Highness. If you will not help us, we will take matters into our own hands.”

“We?”

“Yes. We. There are plenty of others who see what is happening even if you refuse.”

At which Renathal, his patience for thinly veiled threats already exhausted, had taken his leave.

It was, strictly speaking, treason. By right, he ought to have summoned Stone Legion representatives to clap the Accuser in chains and escort her to the nearest convenient crypt. But the re-education of a Harvester would necessarily draw the Master’s eye, something Renathal was actively avoiding as his dredger driver raced his carriage at unprecedented speeds through back ways and side roads in an attempt to avoid the castle grounds. Revendreth, however, seemed to have set itself against him. A sharp turn around a sharper bend saw the carriage’s disastrous cliff side crash, obliging the Dark Prince - the Accuser’s warnings of anima lack still echoing guiltily through his head - to walk the last miles back to Darkwall Tower.

With each uncomfortable step - he was wearing the wrong boots for a hike - Renathal cursed every aspect of this tedious, nerve-wracking, and distinctly inauspicious day. There was only one thing that would salvage it, and he sought it on instinct the very second he reached home. Slamming the front doors behind him, taking the stairs to the first floor two at a time, he stalked for the open entrance to the informal parlour where Elisewin and two dredgers were arranging a modest tea.

At the violent stomp of his boots, all three looked up in varying shades of alarm.

“Out,” he snarled at the undeserving dredgers. “And shut the door behind you.”

They hastened to obey, muttering mutinously at his outburst, but Renathal spared them neither apologies nor a backward glance. His eyes were on Elisewin, setting down her tray of tea cakes and regarding him curiously, as he waited with palpable impatience for the snap of the closing door.

“What-” she began, but Renathal’s mouth had already found hers, dragging her to him and drowning his temper in a deep, desperate kiss she reciprocated without thought, and which, for one full, delicious minute, neither of them was willing to break.

“Come,” ordered Renathal hoarsely, winding his arms around his new lover, ready to whisk her upstairs to his bedroom, anima be damned.

But the miseries of the day had not, apparently, had their fill of him. His stomach gave an unpleasant lurch as Elisewin shook her head.

“Renathal,” she said, half-laughing, avoiding his chasing hands, “you have guests.”

“Who?”

“Tenaval and Dehavia. They’re stabling their sinrunners now.”

“Send them away.”

Elisewin’s laugh blossomed into something full and delighted. It echoed through the high-ceilinged room and unknotted the tension in Renathal’s shoulders and neck. This time when he reached for her, she did not shy away. She let herself be caught, let Renathal kiss her again, laughter and all, and her mirth had not quite faded when he next allowed her air.

“Very well,” she said breathlessly. “And what should I say is the reason you are refusing to see your allies - your friends - after demanding they report to you on such short notice?”

Renathal groaned. A petulant, put-upon sound. Elisewin was right, but he did not have to like it. He did not want to think about intrigue and espionage and anima allotments and rumours of rebellion any longer. The day had been excessively taxing, all the more so for how much of it had been spent away from her. All he wanted now was to wrap Elisewin around himself like a blanket and relax - truly relax; that total abandonment of stress and expectation he so rarely enjoyed - safe under her warmth and gentle weight, for however long they might have left.

He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed at his temple. And, to his surprise, heard Elisewin’s quiet laugh bubble up once more.

“Wait here,” she said and craned her neck to plant a quick kiss on his furrowed brow, then returned to the table and hastily crowded teapot, cups, and accoutrement back on their silver tray. Hoisting it into her arms, she headed for the door, nudged the knob with her elbow, and transferred the rattling porcelain to the dredgers lurking outside. “Change of venue. Set up tea in the formal parlour downstairs instead. Escort the Prince's guests there and let them know he will join them shortly.”

“You are becoming rather free with orders,” remarked Renathal wryly as she shut the door again, then slid the lock into place.

He raised an eyebrow at that. Elisewin’s smile was wide and wicked.

“Your influence. Come.”

His eyebrows slid higher up his forehead, but Renathal made no argument as Elisewin took his hand and led him to a seat on one of the parlour’s low, comfortable chairs. And they almost lost themselves in his hairline when she sank to the floor between his legs and reached for his belt, her unrepentant smile wet and glistening as she unfastened the heavy gold clasp.

Half an hour later, Renathal was no more interested in his duties than he had been all day, but he was a great deal more relaxed as he sat in the formal parlor, sipping tea and absorbing the unsettling news brought by his informants in the Tithelord’s estate.

Dehavia drank in customary laconic silence, her occasional nods or shakes of the head a solemn counterpoint to Tenaval’s eloquent if long-winded report. The gist of which was that, though the Harvester of Envy had indeed increased the realm’s required tithes, anima was as thin on the ground at his Manor as everywhere else in Revendreth. The Tithelord’s own vassals were becoming concerned at their dwindling supply. But the Harvester himself was inexplicably indifferent to their plight. He was as sequestered as Denathrius, going nowhere and seeing no one, with the notable exception of the Harvester of Dread who remained a regular guest.

It was worrisome. Quite apart from the undeniable dearth of anima, if there was corruption among the Harvesters, the Accuser would never let Renathal live it down. He thanked his agents for their information, assured them the matter would be dealt with swiftly, then let Breakfist show them out and sat back against the velvet of his stately parlor chair to brood over what he had learned.

A confrontation with the Master was coming. It was as inevitable as death itself. Renathal would have stormed up to the castle then and there and demanded answers of Denathrius, refused to leave until he had them, were it not for the… extenuating circumstances…

“You look concerned,” Elisewin noted as she piled the used tea things onto their silver tray.

Renathal watched her hands as she worked. Half his mind was lost in worries, the other in delightful memories of the other activities in which those same warm, lavender fingers had recently been engaged.

“It is a concerning issue,” he replied.

“Has this never happened before?” she asked. “Corruption amongst Harvesters? Keeping anima to themselves?”

The question roused Renathal a little from his discordant reverie.

“Well… those are really two separate questions,” he said, sitting straighter in his chair. “Corruption, certainly. But rarely in the form of hoarding anima. Before the drought, such a thing hardly mattered. There was always anima and to spare for even the lowliest of Venthyr. Such a lack is… unprecedented.” He drummed his fingernails against the lacquered armrest. “It is disappointing and disconcerting, but… I suppose it makes sense for corruption to take on a form more applicable to the current climate.

“The question…” He sighed heavily as he admitted the truth out loud, “is not whether there is corruption, but which Harvester is at its heart.”

“And how far it reaches…”

Renathal looked up sharply at Elisewin’s thoughtful murmur.

“After all… you said yourself… there are no secrets from the Sire.”

Her blue-white eyes were fixed unseeingly on the empty fireplace before her, fingers worrying the hem of her tunic in what Renathal had come to interpret as nerves. And something about her own concern for his realm flooded his chest with visceral affection.

“Come here,” he called softly.

Elisewin blinked. She shot a glance at the closed parlor door before accepting Renathal’s outstretched hand and letting him gather her onto his lap. His fingers stroked almost reverently through her dark, silky waterfall of hair, basking in the colligation of comfort and arousal her warm mortal flesh inspired. Renathal closed his eyes, and imagined eternity like this: his lover a permanent fixture instead of running on stolen time. But he knew better. She had spoken the inexorable, infuriating truth. Nothing stayed secret from the Sire.

Which meant…

“Either Denathrius has somehow been deceived,” he mused aloud, “or he himself has fallen to corruption. Both possibilities are terrible to contemplate.”

“And I suppose there’s only one way to find out for certain.”

Renathal hmmed noncommittally into Elisewin’s hair. She lifted her head to look up at him.

“You will have to see him, eventually.”

“I am aware.”

“Then why put it off?”

Renathal grimaced.

"Our... situation... complicates matters," he admitted. “The Sire can smell deception. And he knows me far too well. I cannot hope to approach him, let alone accuse him of something, without giving us away.”

The arm around Elisewin tightened reflexively, as if anticipating the moment when Denathrius would pry her from him. She shifted under his grip.

“Would it really be so bad?” she asked, absently petting the bit of Renathal’s throat peeking from his high collar. “For the Sire to find out, I mean? I understand, there will be consequences, but-”

“Yes.”

Elisewin blinked and dropped her hand. Renathal squeezed his eyes shut, swallowing the sudden upswell of vomitous panic.

"Yes," he repeated with marginally more calm. "It would be... bad."

There was a pregnant pause. Renathal could feel Elisewin's breath flutter his goatee as she stared up at him, expecting explanations. But the memories of that most hated of lessons, and the sure knowledge of another looming on the horizon, were unbearable in his present anxious state.

"You cannot understand," was all he could say.

Elisewin seemed to find this unsatisfactory. She wriggled from his grasp, manoeuvring herself until she sat astride him.

“Renathal,” she said, his name all matter-of-fact consonants, leaning in to tidy his mussed goatee. “I told you already. I'm yours, whatever the consequences. But… I do think I deserve to know what those are, if only to give myself time to prepare.

"It won't change my mind," she assured him with a little shake of her head, hands leaving their work on his chin to comb back loose strands of his hair. "I'm not as delicate as you think. I can take a bit of torture and imprisonment. It's the not knowing I can't stand. And there is so much I don't know already… so much I cannot remember. And that has been worse than anything else I have faced in Revendreth by far. Please, Renathal," and, in an unusual display of open frustration, she raked a hand through her own hair. "Please, don't leave me in the dark about this, too."

Renathal’s capitulatory sigh was dredged from his weary bones. For the second time that day, he knew Elisewin was right, and he was even more miserable about it than before. He dragged air back into his lungs with a rattle and wrapped his fingers around her thighs, fortifying himself for the unhappy task.

“Intimacy... exclusive intimacy,” he explained with reluctance, “is... discouraged among Venthyr. It is not a sin, per se, but it is a gateway for sin. A vice. So much envy, covetous desire, greed, and wrath are born from it. Harvesters in particular are expected to be above such weakness. And… if we are not...” he wet his lips with his tongue, “the Sire intervenes.”

“What does that mean?” asked Elisewin, bland and business-like. “How can the Sire intervene between us?”

Renathal forced the words out from behind gritted fangs.

"He will... take you."

"Take me away?"

"Take you for himself." He laid a stress on the word, and watched understanding dawn in Elisewin's pale eyes. "And by the time he has finished with you, any other... attachment you might have had will be little more than a fading dream. He will ensure your loyalty belongs first and foremost to himself. That both our loyalties do."

Elisewin mulled this information over for a few seconds behind her blank expression before announcing, "I see," then asking with equal impassivity, "Has he done this to you before? Taken someone from you?"

“Many times." Renathal nodded, attempting to mirror her pragmatic tone. "Every time, in fact. I cannot be trusted to keep anything, or anyone, to myself. I am... too possessive. Too prone to jealousy. That is the dark side of dominion, I'm afraid." His lips summoned the bitter corpse of a sardonic smile. "Denathrius sent you here as much to educate me as you. It was a test. One I have failed, obviously, though I cannot pretend to regret it. I knew what the consequences would inevitably be, but.." He slumped back against the chair and closed his eyes as he confessed, "I do not know how I will bear to lose you.”

Again, Renathal’s hands flexed compulsively, this time around the flesh of Elisewin’s thighs. He forced his fingers to unclench, stroking them over the material of her trousers in apology, blindly tracing the tattoos he knew waited for him underneath. He had spent the time before sleep claimed him the previous night memorising their pattern: lines and curves within concentric circles; uncommonly beautiful, comforting, and inexplicably familiar.

Just like every other part of the mortal now leaning in to press her forehead to his.

"You will not lose me, Renathal. I promise," she breathed in earnest, slipping off her sangfroid like an unlaced dress. "Denathrius can drag me from Darkwall and take me by force if he wants to. But he cannot make me love you any less."

“Make you - what?”

Renathal's eyes snapped open. Her face so close to his, he could just make out the violet blooming on her cheekbones and the curves of a small, self-assured smile.

"I love you, Renathal," she repeated."I knew it the first time I saw you. I could feel it. It was already here." She groped for his hand, prised it from her leg and pressed it to her hammering heartbeat. "I just... didn't know why then."

“Do you know now?” asked Renathal, breathless with curiosity and awe and a whole swelling host of emotions he could scarcely name.

“I have some ideas.”

“Share them.”

Elisewin bit her lip, her expression suddenly wicked as she asked, “Is that a command, Your Highness?” and Renathal knew his own was a perfect match as he replied, "Oh, yes."

Her low giggle sent anima swimming down his spine. Renathal slid his hands to her hips, urging Elisewin more precisely against him, and revelling in her little gasp as she felt the full effect of her words. She tilted her head to catch his lips in a kiss already wet and clumsy with her own day-long suppressed need.

“Let me show you,” she whispered, grinding shamelessly against him, and the Dark Prince, wending shadows around them, was happy to oblige.

It was only later, as they lay nestled together in his well-used bed, Elisewin still catching her breath and Renathal reluctant to remove himself from her, that he had time to reflect on her remarkable confession and realise, with no little wonder, it was true for him, too.

He loved her. If he was honest with himself, he knew he had loved her all along. Since he first watched her fumble the tea tray in Denathrius' private chamber what felt like a lifetime ago. He understood their instant connection no better than she, but he could not deny it to himself any longer. Nor did he wish to. There was an exquisite thrill in rearranging their tangle of limbs and pressing his lips to her ear to whisper, "I love you," the shape of the words as familiar and natural on his tongue as her name.

“I love you, Elisewin,” he repeated, savouring the taste of the precious sentiment, and the way it made Elisewin arch against him and murmur hoarsely, “Say that again.”

And the smile that sprung up unbidden as he teased her: “Ordering your Prince around, now, are you?”

And the wanton way she begged him, “Renathal, say it again, please!” as he skated his long fingernails down the delectable curve of her spine.

And the uncommon strength he seemed to derive from repeating the words again and again and again, and hearing them echoed back every time in Elisewin's broken voice. A strength that did not fade as the resting hours waned and the next day dawned. Figuratively speaking. Revendreth’s twilight, like every other aspect of the realm, remained unchanged. Only its Dark Prince felt like a different creature as he rose with his lover, let her dress him, kiss him, and leave him to carry out their requisite tasks.

For Renathal, this meant another day of continuous meetings, more unhappy news of anima lack and appeals for intercession with the Master - these, predominately from the Accuser. But it also meant another day of tense apprehension, as he waited for the Sire to pronounce his judgment over their unsanctioned affair.

It did not come. Not that day or the next, or the next. And with each illicit, “I love you,” he whispered in Elisewin’s ear whenever their duties brought them into proximity, and each thrilling repetition of the words she offered in return, Renathal’s confidence grew. The soul he loved was singular; her presence in his realm, a singular occurrence. Why should their love not be as singular as she? Epochs of experience urged him to expect the worst, but, for the first time in as many long years, Renathal dared to feel... hope.

So much so that the summons, when it finally came, induced only a moderate amount of panic.

“Your Highness,” intoned the Stoneborn Enforcer darkening the doorstep of Darkwall Tower one week after the Harvester's Court. “I have orders to escort you to the Master. Without delay.”

The threat was respectful, but unmistakable. Their reprieve was rescinded at last. Renathal’s eyes flicked from the hulking figure blocking the terrace twilight, to Breakfist, holding the door open and twitching as if he longed to shut it in the messenger’s impudent face; then, with a half-turn, to Elisewin, loitering silently on the first landing of the staircase. Her face was as carefully blank as any stretch of dark stone wall, but her fingers twisted unconsciously round and round the hem of her tunic. And something in her own display of nerves set the spark of treasonous hope within Renathal blazing into sudden and purposeful rebellion.

It was futile, of course. He knew it even as he nodded imperiously at the Stoneborn, bid him wait as Breakfist fetched his second-best coat, and beckoned Elisewin down the stairs to drape it across his shoulders. But the familiar warmth of her breath as she made minute adjustments to his collar, her valiant attempt at encouraging smile as she announced, “I will be here on your return, your Highness,” forged an armor against the worst ravages of worry and fear and despair. And, for once, it was Renathal who was the more supremely self-assured as he held her gaze - the only thing he could hold in the presence of witnesses - and promised, “Then I will return as swiftly as I may.”

Outside on the terrace, an unusual hush had enveloped the twilit air. Revendreth itself seemed to hold its breath as it waited for the Dark Prince's next move. But there was no time to plan, even if there had been plans to lay; nor to run and hide, were there any place safe from the Master's eye. Renathal merely wrapped his coat around himself in defiance of the realm's still chill and followed the Stoneborn across the Bridge of Paramountcy, towards Nathria and its waiting Sire.

They were doomed, himself and his singular mortal, but not without a fight.

Read Chapter 10: Into the Light | Visit the Masterpost

If you enjoyed this story, I would love to hear it 💜

#renathal x maw walker #renathal fan fiction #prince renathal #fanfiction #wow fanfiction #world of warcraft #shadowlands #elisewin #the maw walker #nightborne #wend in the shadows #slow burn romance #amnesia #revendreth #venthyr #breakfist #darkwall tower #tenaval #dehavia

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muzaktomyears · 2 years ago

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The BBC's Audience Research Report on the Magical Mystery Tour film

THE BEATLES

present their own film Magical Mystery Tour

Tuesday, 26th December 1967 8.35-9.25 pm, BBC

Size of audience (based on results of the Survey of Listening and Viewing).

It is estimated that the audience for this broadcast was 25.7% of the population of the United Kingdom. Programmes on BBC 2 and ITV at the time were seen by 1.1% and 15.4% (averages)

2. Reaction of audience (based on questionnaires completed by a sample of the audience. This sample, 368 in number, is the 18% of the BBC 1 Viewing Panel who saw all or most of the broadcast).

The reactions of this sample of the audience were distributed as follows: -

A+ A B C C-

% % % % %

6 6 14 23 51

giving a REACTION INDEX of 23.

3. There was, it seemed, very little ‘magic’ about this particular mystery tour, most reporting viewers, in fact, finding it virtually incomprehensible. There was no theme or story line, they complained, the programme appearing to consist of confused, disconnected shots of the weirdest things and suggesting a nightmare rather than a mystery tour. Indeed, three quarters of the sample could hardly find a good word to say for the programme, considering [it] ‘stupid, pretentious rubbish’ which was, no doubt, intended to be very clever and ‘way out’ but which was, they thought, a complete jumble with neither shape nor meaning and, certainly, no entertainment value whatsoever. The following are just a few of the many outraged comments:

‘The biggest waste of public money since the Ground Nut Scheme.’

‘Positively the worst programme I can remember seeing on any TV channel.’

‘A load of RUBBISH. We have made better home movies ourselves.’

‘I could not understand the thing at all – was this a “take-on” by the Beatles?’

‘I found it unspeakably tiresome and not the least bit funny – but perhaps this is “sick” humour, in which case I am emphatically not “with it”.’

4. The small minority who did enjoy the programme hailed it as something completely ‘different’, the tour idea providing a framework for a ‘zany’ but fascinating piece of television in which anything could – and did – happen and making a most refreshing departure from the usual run of programmes. A schoolboy had this to say: ‘It was one of the best Christmas programmes we have had for a long time. The idea was clever as well as original. It was very funny in parts. A marvellous programme in black and white – in colour, it would be indescribable’. Even those who usually admired the Beatles, however, often confessed themselves bitterly disappointed in the film – it was just not good enough to throw together a seemingly haphazard collection of pictures, shove in a few songs and call it ‘a magical mystery tour’, they said, and a programme like this could do the Beatles’ reputation nothing but harm. The songs were, for some, the only redeeming feature – however poor their film-making, these boys could certainly write good songs (Continued)

#finally typed it up - seen in the liverpool beatles museum #magical mystery tour #the beatles #poor paul lmao #with a quarter of the country watching!

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makers-muse · 1 year ago

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Think Outside The Screen: Code Your Future

Coding is like building with superpowers:

Remember the LEGO Castle? Coding allows children to take their creations to a new level. Consider the same castle, but now it can be programmed to light up in different colours or play a bespoke fanfare as the drawbridge lowers. Coding allows children to add another degree of interactivity and imagination to their physical creations.

Example- Have your child create a maze out of cardboard boxes. Then, assist them in programming a little Robot (there are plenty of kid-friendly versions available) to navigate the maze. This mixes physical building with the excitement of Programming and Problem-Solving.

2. Coding makers Problem-Solvers, not just Gamers:

Coding is similar to putting together a large puzzle. Kids have a goal (e.g., getting that robot to navigate the maze), and they must break it down into smaller, reasonable steps. This teaches children valuable problem-solving abilities that can be utilised in a variety of situations, not just Gaming.

Example- Encourage your child to create a basic animation. Perhaps it’s a bouncing ball or a fish moving across the screen. Even with these rudimentary programmes, they must think rationally about cause and effect, how to break down movement into steps, and how to Debug mistakes.

3. Coding is the new math ( and it’s fun!):

Let’s be honest: conventional maths drills can be a little tedious. Coding, on the other hand, adds a sense of purpose and enjoyment to the learning of math principles. To bring their code to life, kids employ variables, loops, and conditional statements, which are all mathematical building elements.

Example: There are numerous coding programmes created expressly to teach arithmetic subjects. One example could be assisting a character in collecting a specific number of coins or calculating the trajectory of a rocket launch. This gamifies learning and creates a new connection with maths.

4. Coding Boosts Confidence and Creativity:

When a child sees their code come to life, something magical occurs. It is a recognition of their hard work and innovation. Coding allows individuals to create something from scratch, express themselves in new ways, and overcome obstacles. This newfound confidence spreads into other aspects of their lives.

So, how do we get started?

The good news is that Coding Education is now more accessible than ever. There are various online platforms like Makers’ Muse geared exclusively at children. Even unplugged activities, such as coding board games, can convey fundamental principles in a fun and interactive manner.

Are you ready to see your youngster become a coding superhero? Coding for Kids helps to develop extraordinary qualities such as resilience, tenacity, and adaptability. When they come into a bug or a difficult problem, rather than giving up, they roll up their sleeves and dive back in, equipped with tenacity and grit.

And the best part? These amazing talents go far beyond coding, allowing your youngster to face any obstacle with confidence and perseverance.

#coding #digital world #coding for kids #future #programming #innovation #education #artificial intelligence #tech #coding course #stemblr #stemeducation #tumblog

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valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn · 3 years ago

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Just read this article and there are a few things I disagree with but this part about Captain Brexit is brilliant:

"She’s introduced briefing a number of potential recruits to the super soldier programme. This is the scene clearly written to establish Peggy’s SFC cred, and it unfolds like this: One of the recruits immediately starts mouthing off at her, first insulting her accent and then, when she calls him out of the line-up, making sexist, suggestive remarks.

"She punches him to the ground.

"Later she discovers Captain America being kissed by the only other woman with a speaking part in the film, who has no other role except to kiss Captain America. She outwardly maintains her composure until Captain America is handling his iconic shield for the first time, and its perhaps-impenetrable qualities are briefly discussed as well as the fact that it’s just a prototype. Peggy suddenly fires off several shots at Captain America, so that he must raise the shield (which does, thankfully, stop bullets) to avoid being killed.

"Both scenes are framed as funny and impressive.

"You can make a case for the punch, I guess – it’s wartime, she hasn’t got time to pussyfoot around with sexist idiots, she needs to establish her authority hard and fast – but it’s still escalating a verbal conflict to fairly serious physical violence within seconds, and it’s hard to imagine a male character we’re supposed to like being introduced in the same way. The second scene, though, when considered without the haha-what-a-little-spitfire framing of the film, becomes outrageous. Shooting a gun, without warning, at your love interest who has a shield you do not yet know can stop bullets (and what about ricochets?!), because you’re jealous? Or for any reason at all? What the hell, Peggy?

"That a female character is allowed to get away with behaviour that, in a male character, would rightly be seen as abusive (or outright murderous) may seem – if you’re MRA minded, anyway – an unfair imbalance in her favour. But really these scenes reveals the underlying deficit of respect the character starts with, which she’s then required to overcome by whatever desperate, over-the-top, cartoonish means to hand. She’s in a hole, and acts that would be hair-raising in a male character just barely bring her up to their level. The script acknowledges and deplores the sexism the character faces in her very first scene – but it won’t challenge the sexist soldier’s belief that women don’t belong in this story by writing any more women into it. Not women with names and speaking parts, anyway."

#anti peggy carter

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susansontag · 3 years ago

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With each progressive retelling, the hundreds became thousands, the thousands tended towards infinity, and the lice multiplied, becoming settlements and then townships and then cities and then nations. In my mother’s version of the story, these lice caused traffic disturbances on my hair, they took evening walks on my slender neck, they had civil war over territory, they recruited an enormous number of overenthusiastic child soldiers and then they engaged in out-and-out war with my mother. They mounted organized resistance, set up base camps in the soft area of the scalp above the ears and in the nape of the neck where it was always harder to reach, but they were being decimated slowly and surely by my mother’s indefatigable efforts. Every war strategy was deployed, Sun Tzu was invoked: appear weak when you are strong and appear strong when you are weak; when your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him with more chlorinated washes than he can handle; attack him when he is unprepared; force your enemy to reveal himself; be as rapid as the wind when you are wielding the paenseeppu (the merciless narrow-toothed lice comb that removed as many hairs as it removed lice and lice eggs and baby lice); make use of the sun and the strongest shampoo; above all, do not spend time bothering about lice rights and genocide tribunals when you are defending a liberated zone.

This is how my story of Young Woman as a Runaway Daughter became, in effect, the great battle of My Mother versus the Head Lice. And because my mother won this battle, the story was told endlessly, and it soon entered the canon of literature on domestic violence. The Americans had trigger warnings and graphic-content cautions attached to the course material, but otherwise it picked up a lot of traction elsewhere. It was taught in gender studies programmes, and women of colour discussed it in their reading groups (it was still a little too dirty and disorienting for white feminists, and it was perhaps considered a touch too environmentally unfriendly for the ecofeminists, and the postmodernists disregarded it because my mother’s telling ignored the crucial concept of my husband’s agency to beat me), and even those who forgot the original context of the story or the bad-marriage setting always remembered it as a fable about one mother’s unending, unconditional, over-conditioned love.

— Meena Kandasamy, When I Hit You

#what I'm reading #meena kandasamy #quote #moth.txt

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scvnthorpe · 3 years ago

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Rewriting a loading bar for the hell of it

Disclaimer: This post is purely ridonkulous, late-night scrawling.

The instigating code

For context, the Dutch government recently released a bunch of code from DigiD, their mobile-based authentication app. This lil piece of software allows citizens to interact with healthcare, education and other Dutch government services. You can imagine how important it is that care is taken for this thing to work properly!

So naturally, a request was made under the Dutch Open Government Act and so now the code is loose upon the world. But I want to focus on a particular piece of code, thanks to a tweet which came to my attention that you can view here. You can also check out the archived, released source code but we're getting a little ahead of ourselves!

Some of the responses you'll see to the code have been quite funny, but there's also something of a debate between "this code is fine actually" and "I can't believe this code did X, I would have done Y". I must admit I lean a little more to the latter position, but I also think we're missing the forest for the trees with many of the criticisms (which is being criticised for the wrong reasons in a lot of cases IMO).

But we'll get there!

Initial redesign

Note: I am considering this function and this function alone. I am too lazy and hyper-fixated on this one function to pore over the entire codebase rn

The most obvious thing we can change is pruning these booleans; the programmers who came up with this function have made it readable enough that it speaks for itself so this is easy to do.

I'll also change a few other things such as variable names (after all, that variable isn't strictly a percentage, is it?) and redundant indentation but other than that I've stuck to the use of control flow - and frankly, the spirit - of the original piece of code.

Finding the right problems

It's... still not great in my opinion.

Sure, it's one of those pieces of code that I think without the additional clutter even more so speaks for itself.

And yes, there is no error handling or validation (what if this is a negative number, or greater than 1?) which would be a problem if this was a public-facing function.

As it is private however, I can understand thinking it's safe to leave the validation and preparation of inputs up to the public facing bits of the class.

The biggest problem which remains for me is that this code isn't DRY; One of the first things I learnt as a programmer was Don't Repeat Yourself, which is a little irrelevant as not everybody has the exact same journey into programming to begin with but it's good to learn ASAP as it makes life a lot less painful. And of course, begets brevity in your code.

Perhaps, we should try another solution!

Another Redesign

Here, I've taken a few key steps:

Translate the loading factor into the number of loaded 'rounds' (the programmers called these rounds and idk why

Create a string of this number of the char to represent 'loaded'

Create a string for the remaining, unloaded rounds

Return the combination of these two as a string of 'percentage rounds'

Others have posted similar designs, but for this example I've remained a little more explicit. While it takes a little longer to read than our first modification, it's also going to be far more maintainable in the long run.

After all, maybe we want to change what characters our loading bar uses. Or maybe, the total length of the loading bar...

On that note, we can go a little further!

(in my opinion, of course! Feel free to roast my unhinged decisions in the replies!)

We do a little 'over'-engineering

So, here's what I came up with!

I've renamed the function as, again, I don't want to fix the formatting details of this loading bar in stone. I also think the verb 'get' is a little redundant and doesn't add much to the descriptiveness of the name, but that's auxiliary to my main reasons for the rename.

Here, while I've kept in some defaults as a frame of reference to the previous iterations of the design, the function now allows for any number of points on the displayed string.

Moreover, you can pick any chars to represent the loaded and unloaded points of the bar.

We've achieved a higher separation of concerns, to put it in technical jargon: the function no longer decides which characters to use or how long the bar will be, so is directly responsible for less distinct bits of work.

As a result, a design like this isn't constrained to the needs of a specific loading bar interface, but can be reused basically wherever you want a string to visually represent loading progress.

Which means that, fuck it, you can just do something like this!

In retrospect, we end up passing in quite a few arguments.

We could go even further still and use keyword arguments to emphasise what all of this information is, but furthermore we could simply have loadedPoint, unloadedPoint and totalPoints be instance variables and pass the percentFactor to a non-static method which implements the functionality we've been focused on in this post.

However, I think we will keep to the spirit of this being a private static method and end our tinkering here.

In Conclusion: Don't take this all too seriously!

So, to round this all off, I want to re-emphasise a couple of things.

Code quality isn't just about code golf, cool shorthands or elaborate chains of ternary operators - as much as these can be helpful (in fact, stacked ternary operators are a complete pain in the ass in some languages so frankly one may be flying too close to the sun!).

You can also make your code more pleasant to work with through keeping it DRY, trying not to decide too many things in one function, and by simplifying your solution wherever possible.

We started with a function that satisficed for what it set out to do, but that was quite brittle and not prepared to meet a number of small changes in requirements ("I want a loading bar with different shapes! Or out of 100 this time!"). But hey, sometimes, YAGNI, as they say. The key takeaway here is that I don't want y'all to take what I've done here as gospel, but I would like it if people thought about the overall design of their code - how flexible, how scalable is it? - and not just things like "what if I used ternaries instead? what if I used a switch statement?".

But, I'm just some jackass on the internet so, take this and do what you want with it!

#csharp #programming #coding #software #software engineering

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potteresque-ire · 4 years ago

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Concerning the incredibly far and deep reach of CCP’s propaganda, the narratives the government can spin and call the truth; does ‘the common normal populace’ actually know what’s really going on?

Hello everyone!!! Happy Chinese New Year!!

I’m grouping these asks because if I hear them correctly, they’re all related to this question: how much do people in China know about the atrocities committed by their government, and why don’t they do something about it?

It’s a difficult question, isn’t it? A potentially upsetting one too, just to think about. My answers are more opinion-based, more personal this time. Since there’re no polls about what people know, they have to be based a little more on my own impression, which has more chances of error. Please bear with me and proceed with caution ...

As with people in most countries, what people know is hugely dependent on individuals. Specifically, re: politics, I can think of at least three reasons why people don’t have the facts

1) they have limited access to information 2) they’re being lied to about what they know 3) they’re not interested in current affairs.

1), of course, is what most people think about when it comes to China. You’re right, Anon(s), that VPN use is indeed rampant in the country and is essentially an open secret; there’re no official numbers but surveys have estimated the number of users can be up to 100 million, most of them being youngsters. They use it to do exactly what most of us would imagine: gain access to things they don’t have otherwise. Instagram has been (sporadically?) blocked since 2014 September and so while users may have set up their accounts while being overseas, it’s indeed, (very) possible, that they’ve set up and maintained their account under VPN use.

Wait, you may ask, so you mean the Great Firewall of China doesn’t exist?

That’s exactly the official stance. Not because of private VPN use, but because individuals/companies can apply for a license via their telecommunications company to visit all internet sites. Hence, the government’s claim that the Great Firewall doesn’t exist—you’ll be let through as long as you ask (and we’ll watch your every step)! There are also no explicit laws prohibiting the use of private VPNs; only a handful of arrests associated with private VPN use have been made and only since 2019, and the punishment is considered light—no imprisonment, just fines. It is, in contrast, against the law to *provide* private VPN services, and while companies have been shut down, the crackdown has still been incredibly sluggish by Chinese government’s standards, especially when the Xi regime has made its intention of banning VPN known and directives have been issued for that in 2017.

Why has VPN continued to enjoy this “grey existence”? Because without VPN, a lot of foreign businesses would leave—some, for example, require the most efficient online tools developed outside China to track the foreign markets, and talents have rejected job offers in the country when they realised they couldn’t get on their favourite social media. The science and tech sectors also rely heavily on VPN—programmers relying on Google to search stackoverflow, for example, to find known solutions to bugs.

VPNs have also served political purposes—Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-critical communities all over the world are all painfully aware of the Chinese government’s practice of hiring its own collection of internet commentators (”50 Cent Party”), and at times, mobilising their youths (gamers, fan circles) to scale the Firewall and astroturf, throw insults at the “CCP enemies” and bomb message boards with pro-CCP messages.

Also, a significant fraction of VPN companies, both in China and overseas, have been reported to have Chinese ownership, by companies with government connections. These VPN services provide a false sense of security for those who do not enjoy having big brother peeking behind their backs while acting as surveillance tools that extend beyond the country.

(Please be careful about free VPNs).

The next question: If until now, users of private VPNs only rarely get into trouble, what’s holding them from scaling the Great Firewall and learning the facts?

It is this: the law isn’t about “climbing the wall”, but what one does outside the wall.

Article 6 of the 2016 edition of Cybersecurity law states the following:

第六条　国家倡导诚实守信、健康文明的网络行为，推动传播社会主义核心价值观，采取措施提高全社会的网络安全意识和水平，形成全社会共同参与促进网络安全的良好环境

Article 6: The State advocates sincere, honest, healthy and civilized network conduct; promoting dissemination of the core socialist values, adopting measures to raise the entire society's awareness and level of network security, and forming a good environment for the entire society to jointly participate in advancing network security.

What this article implies is this ~ legally, Chinese citizens are bound to the Chinese government’s rules of good internet conduct, regardless of whether they use VPN to get on the internet. As with many Chinese laws, however, the vagueness in wording invites more questions than answers. Is it getting on Twitter, a banned website, “sincere, honest, healthy and civilized network conduct”? Obviously, it’s illegal to interact with other users about the Xinjiang’s internment camps, but what if one only goes there to talk about their favourite stars, because on Weibo supertopic they can’t even mention the stars’ name, can’t ahkgkhagjkfaskjgdf about their favourite fics? What if one goes there to discuss a M- or E-rated fic? Where is the line drawn and given its vagueness, will that line move tomorrow? How?

Most people, therefore, have opted to simply stay away from VPN. After all, China offers its own version of many of the fun websites out there (Weibo-Twitter; Instagram-Oasis; Tiktok-Douyin; Youtube-Bilibili). For those who do use VPN, they tend to stick to websites that are unlikely to cause issues (such as Instagram; Instagram became an issue when Hong Kongers started to upload information about the protests on there).

Now, let’s proceed to 2): People don’t know the facts because they’re being lied to about what they know.

There’s a difference between having access to facts and knowing that they’re facts. This is among the most painful lessons, perhaps, for those who followed the politics of the United States in the last few years (please forgive me for the US-centric-ness of the following few paragraphs!). Even with equal access to identical information, people can vary a LOT in their understanding of what are facts and what are lies.

This illustrates the power of propaganda—and propaganda in the US isn’t even centralised. Some media outlets and individuals (political leaders and analysts) have more say on what should be viewed as the truth, but parties without significant power—small foreign and domestic interests, fringe political organisations, conspiracy theorists, regular folks—have also made critical contributions to the “fake news” phenomenon in the US. There haven’t been apparent coordinations between these parties; little concerted effort has been made to create one coherent story out of the many tales told.

In China, the propaganda effort is centralised, coordinated, free of distractions from competing story lines. The One Story the government decides on is repeated, over and over again, on newspapers, in shows, in textbooks, on signs on the streets, on social media. To put it another way, when it comes to political discourse, the country is designed to be an echo chamber with 1.4 billion people. Over time, the One Stories inevitably become firmly held beliefs—so firmly held that even if the people are exposed to facts, they no longer believe in them.

This is especially true when the source of the facts are countries with strong traditions of freedoms of speech and press, where the facts are often laid out with a critical eye to the administration and with vastly different opinions attached to them. While we view the latter as evidences that the values we embrace are alive and well—a critical eye to the administration means the Fourth Estate is doing its job, and the different opinions means freedom of speech gets to live another day—people who haven’t been exposed to these values tend to interpret these things as signs of weakness of the government. They may think the Chinese government is better than its counterparts elsewhere because no one is penning scathing criticisms against it. They may think the Chinese government is stronger because it unifies the opinions of their people—the failure of which, they’ve been taught, would lead to social chaos and economic free-fall.

The Chinese population has also been “immunised” against the truths that may be exposed about their government by a propaganda talking point used since Chairman Mao’s days—that the “Imperialist” western world, particularly the United States, is always scheming its downfall. The phrase often used is 美帝亡我之心不死 (”The heart (intention) of Imperialist US to bring us down will never die”). Unfavourable truths exposed must therefore be part of the “bring down China” scheme. This decades-old demonisation of the political apparatus of the US and Europe also prepares the people to accept what most would see as outrageous conspiracy theories: for example, in March 2020, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that the US Army intentionally planted COVID in Wuhan during the 2019 Military World games. “Foreign interference” becomes a frequent and convenient scapegoat for policy decisions gone wrong, sometimes to a (somewhat) hilarious effect ~ for example, a Taiwanese journalist calculated the cost required for the CIA to fund the 2019 Hong Kong Protests, as the Chinese government had claimed—and it turned out that the CIA was too poor to do it.

(Many of us in the US would probably laugh at the idea that our government is capable of secretly paying 2 million foreign-language speaking strangers to show up together in one march.) (It can’t even get the COVID relief payments to its own people right over a period of months.)

(Fun trivia for turtles! As 美帝=“Imperialist US” is the synonym of a feared, imaginary super-villain—super organised, super efficient, super everywhere and super impossible to take down—c-BJYX, the indestructible No. 1 CP fandom in China, has been nicknamed “美帝 cp” by those not so enamoured with it.)

Finally, there’s the psychological factor. Once a set of beliefs becomes personal truths, listening to alternatives can be very upsetting (for those in the US: imagine the blue voting block made to listen to Fox News). Hence, even when people gain access to the facts later—for example, when they study/work abroad, even emigrate—they often don’t take advantage of the access. Instead, they remain logged in in the Chinese social media sites where they’re comfortable with not only the politics but also the language and the friendships they’ve built, and continue to immerse themselves in an environment heavy with CCP propaganda. They remain defenders of the Chinese government; some have even gone out and harass people who disagree with it, in the name of freedom of speech that their country of origin never offered to them.

Censorship, of course, is an important component of building a One Story echo chamber, and I should add a note about it: censorship in China comes in vastly different strengths. The restrictions on LGBT+ issues, for example, are fairly lax, relatively speaking—“homosexuality” remains a term one can find on their internet and a topic the administration continues to address, and while BL dramas are censored, their adapted versions, along with highly publicised discussions of their original material, have so far been tolerated. The strictest form of Chinese censorship would’ve allowed neither: any mention of the 1989 June 4th Tiananmen Square massacre , for example, is immediately removed, including any hints that the event may have happened. When the former leader of the Chinese government, Jiang Zemin (江澤民), was rumoured to have passed away, the censorship apparatus went so far as to remove all mentions of Jiang, which also happened to mean “large rivers”. Chinese netizens therefore joked that major rivers had ceased to exist in China that day, as one couldn’t find any information about them online.

(LGBT+ activists have therefore remained optimistic about the future of their campaign, despite the current state of affairs. To put it simply: the Chinese government has bigger fish to fry. Sexual minorities haven’t had major clashes with the administration, haven’t embarrassed the Chinese government with their demand for rights as the ethnic minorities—the Uyghurs, the Tibetans, the Mongolians etc did. Political dissidents, including the millions in Hong Kong, are also (far) ahead in the ranking of fish size.)

For most issues, the censorship effort sits somewhere in the middle and is often inconsistent over time. The people, therefore, often have knowledge that an event has happened — even when the event is considered, beyond the Great Firewall, damaging to the reputation of the Chinese government. However, critical information is often missing in their knowledge, or is heavily distorted. For example, overseas Chinese citizens have insisted that the motivation of the 2019 Hong Kong Protests was economic, echoing the longstanding CCP propaganda that Hong Kongers have been jealous of China’s prosperity (reality: China’s GDP per capita was $10,268 USD in 2019, and Hong Kong’s, $48,713—more than 4 times higher). They missed out a critical fact: while the fast economic growth of China has created some unease—Hong Kongers have always known the Chinese government has only tolerated them and their freedoms for their ability to generate wealth—what has truly ignited Hong Kong’s anger is the Chinese government’s violation of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, and the terms it had agreed upon to get back the then British crown colony. Hong Kong hasn’t been demanding autonomy and freedoms because it’s a troublemaker, but because these things were promised to the city as conditions of the 1997 handover. As residents of the world’s third largest financial centre, Hong Kongers are diligent drafters and executioners of contracts (which international treaties are) and above all, faithful believers of them. For an asker (the Chinese government) to claim a contract as “historical” because it has received the goods (Hong Kong) and no longer feels a need to pay (allow Hong Kong 50 years of freedoms and autonomy) is offensive to the principle, the very heart and soul of the city.

(Gg’s former boss was a Hong Konger, and his experience working for him was a rather accurate reflection of Hong Kong’s view on business. What made an impression to Gg—that the posters should be without rips and misprints, even if these imperfections were not the fault of the design company—is a no-brainer to the Hong Konger in me reading the interview. Delivering high quality goods and services isn’t an act of kindness but rather, of professionalism and respect for the contract.)

(This interview is a highly recommended read, for those who’ve missed it!)

(One more example of “conveniently missed critical information”: remember GG’s show on Chongqing? Did you know the underground bombing shelters were not built by the Communist government, but the Nationalist government that was still ruling China during WWII?)

Anyway, where was I?

Right. We’re getting to 3): People are not getting the facts on the political situation in China because they’re not interested in current affairs.

Some—well, many— people are not interested in politics.

Some of you may be thinking: well, I’m not interested either. I follow politics because it’s important.

Why is it important? Because political engagement means you can do something about the many ills of the society, speak for those who cannot, force the government to change by voting, by voicing your opinion, by going to marches and protests etc.

What if you follow politics and still can’t do most of these things? What if, if you do choose to do these things, the price you pay may be astronomical? Will you still follow politics or devote your time, your energy to something else, something you’ve got more control over, something that won’t be as saddening, frustrating because it’s something you can actually change?

3) is therefore intricately related to why people often don’t do anything, even if they manage to find out about the facts.

There’re no national elections in China. Marches and protests are practically banned because while the Chinese Constitution guarantees the freedom of assembly (as it does freedom of speech and press; Article 35), it also explicitly states that "Citizens of the People’s Republic of China, in exercising their freedoms and rights, may not infringe upon the interests of the State, of society or of the collective, or upon the lawful freedoms and rights of other citizens.” (Article 51) — ie. the freedoms and rights only go as far as if they do not stand in the government’s way. Social media and all communications platforms are under constant surveillance, and so only opinions tolerated by the government is allowed...

And so, the fact, social ill that has broken your heart—you can’t tell for sure if it isn’t talked about because the government has censored it, how many people know about it and more importantly, how many among the people who know about it will agree with your take. If you break your silence and voice your concerns, how many people will have your back, even if you also conceive them as victims of the social ill? If the social ill is the lack of rights of a minority group, for example, will they appreciate your speaking out, or will your “rocking-the-boat” make things even worse for them? A heavily watched net means communications with the oppressed/vulnerable social groups are often filled with obstacles, if not outright impossible. You don’t know how these groups feel; you don’t even know how many affected individuals are there. You watch the and news and shows and they all talk about how wonderfully things are going; how everyone seems so hopeful and positive and happy with their lives—are you the only person feeling that way? Are you wrong? If you speak out then, will you be yelling into the void, or worse, yelling at the police who “invites” you for a chat in the police station? To speak for those who do not have a voice to speak, are you ready, willing to take the risk of also becoming one who no longer has a voice to speak? Is your family ready?

To put it another way: the opportunity cost of “doing something” about the political situation can be astronomically high in China, compared to the opportunity cost of us doing something similar in our own country.

If I want to support the LGBT+ population in my part of the US, for example, I can do so effectively with minimal investment and most importantly, with minimal risk. By pasting a rainbow flag on this Tumblr post, for example, I’ve already signalled to those who need support on this issue that I’m ready to give mine. And this “signal” of mine will join the hundreds and thousands on the site, collectively telling the activists doing the “on the ground” fighting that they’re not alone; that they have my vote of support. I pose no danger to myself in doing so; no one will accuse me of, arrest me for infringing upon the interests of the State and the Collective. The rainbow flag, a display of my stance, will not turn into a blurred blob the next time I look at it, transform overnight from a symbol of solidarity to a warning sign to those who may wish to join the cause. There’s no danger for me, even, to carry an actual, huge rainbow flag to Pride, perform my activism in person. I don’t have to worry about my phone already giving away my identity as a protester to the government, especially in post-COVID times. I don’t need to watch out for plain clothes pretending to be my allies. I don’t have to look at the many surveillance cameras present and wonder if I’ll get blacklisted as a troublemaker.

Am I still being tracked and taken pictures of? Possibly. But for this cause, at least, I’m not afraid that these information will be used to arrest me. If I were arrested, I know there'll be lawyers and activists who would come to my aid. LOUDLY. ANGRILY.

I’m not afraid. Period. I’m having fun. And I doubt I can say the same if I try to carry a rainbow flag to Tiananmen square and march there.

This vast difference in the opportunity cost of taking political action is the reason why I’ve refrained from demanding those who live under authoritarian dictatorships to stand up for their neighbours who’ve been oppressed / bullied by their governments. I’ve refrained from criticising them for looking away, minding their own business. Do I wish they’ve take action? Of course I do. Am I aware that their lack of action is potentially more harmful because of the frequent atrocities happening around them? Yes. But I also understand that going on a fight is far more frightening when one doesn’t even have a sense of how many will join their side of the fight; I understand that fighting for what one deserves—freedoms, rights, justice—should never equal martyrdom, and just because a regime has elected to put equal signs between the two doesn’t mean those equal signs should ever be there. I remind myself that, to ask the people in any authoritarian dictatorship to stand up for a political cause is to ask them to make sacrifices that we, as people in relatively free societies, do not need to make when standing up for the same cause. In a country where a father demanding the truth about the milk product poisoning of his own son got jail time for “eliciting social disorder”, to stand up for even a single issue, no matter how small that issue is, requires courage that I’m not sure I have.

I can’t ask anyone to do anything I may not be able to do myself.

And this is why I, too, have chosen to support these people, even if many of them are single-issue activists, even when many support the Chinese government on other issues that matter. For example, the late Dr Li Wenliang, one of the eight COVID whistleblowers in China who passed away from the disease, was an opponent of the Hong Kong Protest, but I still (greatly) appreciate, respect him for what he did. As long as they’re not actively helping the government to cause (more) harm to others, as long as their cooperation with their government falls within what is demanded of them as citizens, they have my support. Why? Because most people who speak out in China cannot afford to stand up for more than one cause before it becomes dangerous for them. Because even if it’s only a tiny vulnerable social group, one small minority that makes a tiny step towards more rights, more freedoms, more justice, it’s still a victory in a country where rights, freedoms and justice are luxury items for those with neither political nor economic power. Because those who’re not part of the ruling class cannot afford to cherry pick their allies, cannot afford to in-fight when the ruling class already holds absolute power. Because I still believe in pay-it-forward, that most people who’ve benefited from someone standing up for them, even for one small incident, one minor cause, is more likely to stand up for someone else.

This is, admittedly, not always an easy choice to make—not for me, at least. I do get frustrated, can’t help but think at times that those who subscribe to and spread propaganda are, to a certain extent, corroborators of the atrocities committed by their government. (So, to those who’ve felt this frustration, you’re not alone!). And the Hong Konger in me has every reason to be furious with everything about China right now—all I could think of, when I listened to Gg singing 異鄉人 Foreigner the other night, are all the Hong Kongers fleeing the city now, as refugees, because of their political beliefs.

But for now, I’m hanging on. I’ve been able to tell myself that given the country’s political reality, given its tradition of collectivism (which tends to view confrontational dissent with scorn), the paths to freedoms, to equal rights and acceptance, will not be the same as what I’ve seen, what I’ve wished for. They’ll likely be slow; They’ll likely be long and winding, taking three steps forward and two steps back; they’d likely be unexpected in places, offer us surprises —

And since it’s Chinese New Year / Valentines and I’m feeling brave (irresponsible?), I’d venture a little bit of speculation and say this ~ yes, I’ve wondered if one of these many paths may be trodden, intentionally or not, by two beautiful male idols and their millions of turtles. Is it wishful, fantastical thinking? I’d be the first to admit the answer is yes. But the BJYX scheme has been so well executed as of now, so effective that I can’t help but wonder if it’s leading towards some sort of a goal, whether devised by the humans involved or by the gods/Fates who, as c-turtles have said so romantically, have been writing an original BL story with our favourite boys. The goal may be personal —simply two people being able to act more like themselves again under the spotlight—or a bit more ambitious…

… Because the sneakers + ice-cream post did catch my attention (will probably have to devote a post on that?). Another small incident that has caught my attention, unrelated to Gg and Dd but can significantly change the path they may be trodding, is this — in June 2020, People’s Daily, the state controlled newspaper, boasted its country’s increasing friendliness towards the LGBT+ communities on Twitter . While the tweet was met with skepticism and soon removed, the message it sent is this: the Chinese government may have figured out the the Western world (in particular, the younger generations) view LGBT+ rights as a measure of progressiveness. While I’m still leaning towards the government maintaining a tight grip on LGBT+ rights within its borders, with the strengthening call to boycott 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics because of the country’s poor human rights record, I can see a glimmer of possibility that the same government may do the unexpected and cater to the queer community for the sake of propaganda. As I mentioned, the queer community hasn’t caused much headache for the Chinese government, and so it’s far more likely to be chosen as the “benefactors” of such a “we’re a human rights champion too!” propaganda campaign than, say, ethnic minorities and political dissidents. Promoting dissemination of core socialist values has always sat high on the CCP’s agenda list, and its target audience has always included foreign, non-Chinese populations; this effort is known as 大外宣—“The Great External Propaganda”. And who better to cast as leads of an international propaganda campaign on LGBT+ rights than two of its own stars who’ve already demonstrated loyalty to the government, who’ve already garnered international fame from a TV series widely viewed as queer, and who may actually be queer?

(And if—if!!!— this ever happens, may I ask everyone to please consider doing the following? Please do not feel a need to express gratitude. Please do not act as though it’s a gift. Celebrate as you would celebrate anyone in a free country exercising their birthright to live, to love the way they want — no less than that, no more than that.)

(For those who’ve asked ~ as international fans, not allowing the CCP to modify our expectations of how a government should behave may be one of the most effective ways to protect Gg and Dd.)

(I call this learning from the best: get the goods we want (more rights for the people in China), refuse to pay the cost (subscribe to CCP’s propaganda), and RUN! ❤️💛💚)

#pie metas #yizhan #bjyx #pie answers

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the-al-chemist · 3 years ago

Note

It’s been a long time since the last FFWF ask, bestie 💛

My question for today is:

I call you the faceclaim goddess for a reason because no one has an eye for believable family resemblance than you. I’d like to know your process behind choosing faceclaims, especially when it comes to family relations? Maybe even illustrated on the most superior of all families aka the Hexleys? 🥰

Thank you for this compliment and this ask! 🧡

So, I almost always come up with a character and an idea for a story before choosing that character’s faceclaim. I generally don’t pick their faceclaim off an image alone, either - I can only really get a grasp on whether they “fit” the idea I have in my head if I see them move/speak. I don’t just pick faces, I pick mannerisms and gestures and facial expressions that suit the character. Sometimes this is by searching, but usually I have an idea of someone I’ve seen in a programme or show that might work.

As for picking faceclaims for related characters, I’ve always had the sort of brain that picks up on similarities between faces (the number of times I’ve thought that an actor was someone else entirely because I’ve seen a resemblance and thought that they had the same face), so making a family tree isn’t too hard. Basically, I use a lot of google image searches where I search two names at once so I get several examples of both faces appearing next to each other so I can compare them.

You want illustrations? I’ll give you illustrations, and then some. It’s all under the cut BC it’s so long.

Artemis Hexley - Dafne Keen/Mila Kunis: I never had to seek out a faceclaim for little Artemis; I started rewatching His Dark Materials whilst writing one of the earlier parts of the Saga and realised that Dafne Keen was the child I was imagining whilst writing. It’s not really surprising, given how much HDM has influenced me as a writer and as a person, and how much Lyra was an inspiration for Artemis as a character.

I did and didn’t have to actively seek out a faceclaim for Artemis as an adult. Mila Kunis was the first face that popped into my head, because I had seen photos of Dafne Keen in which I thought she looked very like her, however, I didn’t really like the idea of her for Artemis as I thought her too conventionally beautiful. However, I struggled to find anyone else who fitted what I imagined or believably based on the face I already had in mind, and after seeing her in this video, I was sold. She’s perhaps a prettier, more polished version of Artemis than I’d envisioned, but she just is Artemis nevertheless.

Jacob Hexley - Dominic Cooper: Jacob was always Dominic Cooper. He’s got the similar look around the eyes to Artemis and his character in The History Boys is exactly how I imagined Jacob as a teenager - cocky, charming, calculating.

Sara Kowalski-Hexley - Rachel Weisz: Sara is the daughter of Queenie Goldstein, so to find her faceclaim, I google searched “actress who looks like Alison Sudol”. Rachel Weisz was the first hit. I did consider options for Sara who might be more like Artemis in appearance, but I love that if you were to look at pictures of Queenie, Sara and Artemis in succession, you’d get the believable family connection.

Leander Hexley - Andrew Scott: there are two reasons why I picked Andrew Scott for a faceclaim for Leander. Firstly, I just love him. He’s one of my favourite actors. Secondly, he’s a very versatile actor, who has a lot of different famous roles. We don’t know much about Leander other than he was clever, butted heads with Jacob at times, and died in tragic and suspicious circumstances. Was he a sweet and funny man like the hot priest? Was he a total psychopath like Moriarty? Was he a clever and brave but absent father like John Parry? He could be any one of those things, and you wouldn’t guess at a single one based on his face alone.

Héloïse Perrault - Audrey Tautou: Audrey Tautou was one of the faces I considered briefly for Sara. I disregarded her because Sara is American with Jewish/Polish ancestry and Audrey Tautou is just… SO FRENCH. Still, it was an important part of my lore and backstory for Artemis that she had french ancestry, so Héloïse’s face claim was the first I picked for my HPHL characters.

Ethel Hexley - Maya Hawke: Ethel’s character concept came first, as soon as I wanted a face for her, my mind went straight to a BBC adaptation of Little Women I watched at Christmas a few years ago. Maya Hawke played Jo March in this (and she did an amazing job), and she was just the first idea I had for Ethel, who is very Jo-like in personality.

Jim Hexley - Josh O’Connor: I loved Josh O’Connor in the Durrells and The Crown. Neither of these characters are at all like Jim, however, once Ethel’s face was set, his came to mind as her twin. They have the same freckled complexion, prominent ears, and something similar in the bone structure. He also has a very approachable and slightly awkward look to him, which I liked for Jim.

Ophelia Burke - Mia Wasikowska: Ophelia is the exception to my rule; she is the first (and one of just two) of my characters where the face came first. And this is your fault, as you know.

Mavis Morland/Marguerite Nott - Carey Mulligan: I once met Carey Mulligan in Wagamamas. Also, she was one of the faceclaims I considered for adult Artemis. The fact that she has a passable resemblance to Mia Wasikowska sealed Ophelia’s fate and the faceclaim lineage of this branch of the family tree.

Malvolio Nott - Will Keen: I struggled for ages to find a faceclaim for Ophelia’s horrible husband. Then I realised the solution was simple - who better to have a family resemblance to Artemis than her faceclaim’s actual dad?! He seems lovely in real life, but plays a lot of evil men in suits, which works perfectly for Malvolio.

Zadie Taylor-Allen - Antonia Gentry: it’s easy to forget with the several generations between them and the different surname, but Zadie is actually a Hexley - her father is the descendant of Ethel and @slytherindisaster’s Lysander. Which means that in @kc-and-co’s canon, she is also very distantly related to Murphy McNully. I didn’t pick this faceclaim because of a family resemblance, I picked Antonia Gentry because when I created a ballerina OC, I knew I wanted her to be a P.O.C., as women of colour are underrepresented in ballet. Antonia Gentry has a really beautiful and soulful face, and she’s got Ethel’s freckles.

Cleo Hexley - Simone Ashley: the latest of the Hexley brood is my second OC for whom the face came first. More than anything, it was Simone Ashley’s mannerisms and facial expressions that made the connection between her and the Hexley family dynasty. She’s Jacob’s daughter, but she is under development at the moment, because I am still considering Jacob’s story, and because I always feel the need to research my OC’s who are members of a minority group more stringently so as to represent those groups accurately and respectfully.

#happy ffwf!#artemis hexley #jacob hexley #jim hexley #ethel hexley #heloise perrault #ophelia burke #zadie taylor allen #cleo hexley #the hexley family #all the hexleys

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teawaffles · 4 years ago

Text

There’s No Business Like Show Business: Chapter 2

The next day.

After finishing his work at the mansion, Bond headed to Whitechapel’s Leman Street, where Maya and her company normally held their rehearsals. [1]

Walking down the noisy street was not just Bond, but also three other employees of the Moriarty household. One of them was Fred Porlock.

“It would’ve been fine if only you came along, Fred…… But thanks for joining us anyway, you two.”

Bond directed that to Jack Renfield and Sebastian Moran, who were walking a little behind him.

As Fred was a master of disguise, Bond had asked him to contribute his opinion on the performance too when Jack and Moran decided to tag along. Now the four of them were on their way to the rehearsal — with Louis’ permission of course.

Jack roared with laughter.

“No, you don’t have to thank me. I’ve watched my fair share of theatre, so I thought I could help them out, even if it’s from an amateur’s perspective,” said the old butler, nodding as he reminisced about those good old days.

“You’re probably just after the young girls from the theatre company, aren’t you old man?” Moran said, half in disgust. “Bond said this Maya chairwoman is a dashing lady in her own right, so I came along to feast my eyes on—— Ow, that hurt!”

Jack had clapped Moran on the head, as a warning to not shoot his mouth off.

“The only one here chasing women is you. Really, you didn’t even finish your chores properly before coming here.”

“I did my part just fine. For once, I’m not skipping out on work.”

“Rubbish — I did a check before we left and found some cigarette butts in the hallway. Don’t you dare annoy Louis any further.”

“……W-Well, the more the merrier, right?”

“…………”

Listening to their usual argument at the back of the group, Bond smiled wryly, while Fred was silent.

Finally, they had reached their destination. Waiting in front of the theatre was Maya, and her little sister Mae.

“Mister Bond!”

“Hey, haven’t seen you since yesterday.”

Mae waved her arms up and down in excitement, while Bond greeted them with a smile.

“S—sorry. Normally, she would play with the other children near our place, but today she insisted on coming with me…… By the way, um, who might these, d—dignified gentlemen be?”

“Ah, they work at the same household as me. The short one here is Fred. The somewhat scary-looking one is Moran. And this dandy old gentleman is Mr Jack. If you’re alright with it, I thought you could use their input as well.”

As Bond introduced them, the three men also greeted their host. But Maya seemed a little perplexed.

“……Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to come here in a big group,” Bond admitted, looking slightly uncomfortable.

“No, no.” Maya hurriedly waved her hands. “I—I’m really grateful to be able to, hear valuable feedback from, so many people. For now, let’s not stand here to talk, please come in……”

Maya guided them into the theatre, stooped in a self-abasing posture. Her faltering voice was much as the same as from their previous encounter, but today, nerves seemed to have crept in as well.

“She has a sort of shadow about her, but that has its own charm. Like the transient beauty of a young widow, don’t you think?”

“She’s pretty, for sure, but not really my type. More like the kind of woman who complicates things when you break up with her.”

“Um, sorry you two, but if you could just keep your voices down,” chided Bond, as Jack and Moran whispered about the chairwoman behind her back.

Right after the entrance was a cramped space. The box seats above them looked hastily constructed; in truth, the interior decorations made it seem more appropriate to call this place a playhouse, rather than a proper theatre.

But their guide had only praise. “The manager here is, a really nice person; whenever we say we want to practise, he’s always happy to lend it to us. There are performances held at night, so we can only use it during the day.”

“He trusts you, doesn’t he.”

Hearing her speak with such sincere gratitude, Bond was quietly impressed by her character. Perhaps her dark aura easily invited misunderstanding, but she was definitely genuine at heart.

“Speaking of which, Miss Maya, you said that you’re the director for this performance, but surely someone else is responsible for the sets and the arrangements at the other theatre during this time?”

“Another member is in charge of the sets, but the negotiations and the like, w—were handled by me. Even so, the manager of the larger theatre — a nobleman — had actually approached us to be the opening act for another company, and I just accepted his invitation.”

“Still, isn’t it great to be invited to perform on a bigger stage, even if it’s just as an opening act?”

“Yes; for people like us — a theatre company from the slums, we don’t have many chances to show the world what we can do, so everyone’s doing their very best.”

Saying that, Maya secretly clenched her fists. Surely the one working the hardest was none other than Maya herself.

There was no audience in the stalls, and on the stage were a number of men and women — likely the company members themselves — doing light warm-ups and vocal exercises. A few of the children he’d met yesterday were also frolicking about on stage.

One exceptionally tall man on the stage had noticed Bond and the others enter the hall, and spoke up.

“Oh, is that the rumoured theatre master?”

Moran whistled at this unusually grand title.

“Theatre master, eh. A fitting name considering your experience, Bond.”

“Fufu, I’m honoured.”

Bond accepted it with his innate courage and composure. Then, he went onto the stage with Maya, while the other three sat in the stalls at the far end, so as to not stand out and interfere with the rehearsal.

The company members each stopped what they were doing and lined up in wait.

“Everyone, this is Mr Bond, who will be watching our performance today,” introduced Maya.

Right then and there, her voice had become clearer and stronger. A little taken aback by the sudden change in her attitude, Bond took a quick look around the room.

“Hello to you all. I’m looking forward to what you have for me today,” he said solemnly, as he bowed.

“We’ll do our best!” The company members bowed their heads in unison.

From their greeting, Bond could feel the the quality of their bearing, and the strength of their cohesion. Not only that, the tension he himself once felt when he stood on stage came rushing back in waves.

He switched his frame of mind from that of a special agent, to that of an actor, and looked over Maya and her company with an earnest gaze.

“Well then, without further ado, please show me what you’ve got.”

“Yes!”

Even though his instructions had been given with no introductory remarks, they asked no unnecessary questions, and jumped straight into preparation. Even though they had only put up plays in cheap theatres, Maya’s company already displayed the high level of professionalism they had developed.

“Miss Maya, what’s the programme for today?” Bond asked, as he moved to the row of seats right in front of the stage.

Maya was also directing Mae and the other children to sit down. “We’re starting with ‘The Red Shoes’, followed by ‘The Little Mermaid’, and lastly, ‘The Little Match Girl’.”

“Hmm, fairytales, I see.”

The unexpected subject matter piqued his interest.

In a time when Shakespeare was all the rage, to perform children’s literature in a proper theatre, and a serious scripted play at that — now this was a bold move.

But as someone who liked to do things unconventionally, that was precisely why their play intrigued Bond. Yesterday’s playful rendition of “The Little Match Girl” was probably inspired by it as well.

Then, the tall man who noticed Bond earlier spoke up.

“Ain’t it interesting? Maya always makes sure to write plays that even us poor dumb folk understand. Today’s script is also entirely her work,” he said cheerfully.

“Weren’t you in charge of creating the play too? You should be able to write at least one decent line of dialogue.”

At the man’s self-satisfied tone, a woman beside him sighed. But he ignored her pointed comment and carried on.

“There were a bunch of people who’d always thought ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Macbeth’ and the like were plain boring; but after Maya broke them down into something easier to follow, they’ve gotten hooked onto Shakespeare.”

“Being able to interpret works in a way that everyone can understand…… A wonderful talent indeed.”

But if you were to put on a proper production of Shakespeare in an unregulated theatre like this, you would be caught by the censors. To avoid that, incorporating music and the like into their productions was a brilliant adaptation on their part.

Bond had said that last part out loud, and the man thanked him for his words of praise. The members of the company had shown their admiration for Maya, but the woman herself took in a deep breath, as if to hide her embarrassment.

In other words, in order to put on a play that everyone could follow, the answer she'd arrived at was “fairytales”. Although it may be the best choice given the short length of the opening act……

“I’m sitting next to Mister Bond!”

“Hey, no fair!”

Bond had been absorbed in thought about the contents of the play. Nearby, the children were scrambling for the best spots. Having won the seat to the left of Bond, Mae asked him a question.

“Mister Bond, do you like ‘fairy tales’?”

That pulled him out of his thought process for a moment, and Mae smiled.

“Yeah. I read them when I was a child.”

“I like them too, because Maya and the rest always read them in a fun way—”

“Me too!” The other children raised their hands and shouted. Reading stories aloud while acting out the roles was indeed a theatrical way of reading to children.

However, Mae immediately pouted in frustration.

“But I really hate that story.”

“……Why is that?”

“The little girl always looks so sad. I tried asking Maya to give it a happy ending, but she just said that we have to ‘respect the intent of the story’ and didn’t listen.”

Her words helped Bond discern the true nature of the incongruity he'd felt.

As Mae had said, all three stories had their protagonists fall into unfortunate circumstances and perish. It was true that many fairytales were cruel, but there were others with happy endings too. Was there some hidden intent behind these choices?

As Bond pondered the new question that surfaced in his mind, Mae leaned in towards him.

“Mister Bond, do you also think it’s important, what Maya said? No matter how sad a story is, can’t we make it happy on our own?”

She asked that question with clear eyes. Bond thought for a few seconds, before responding.

“It’s true that it’s important to understand the intention of the original story. If you change its contents haphazardly, the fans of the story would be upset. I think your sister is the type who would take that very seriously.”

Mae glanced down in disappointment at his level-headed answer, but Bond continued.

“However, if we were all afraid of criticism, then nothing new would ever be made. If you have something you really want to tell others, then I think it’s possible to add a new interpretation to a story. After all, one form of respect is to show the world how you would’ve done it.”

“……Oh I see!”

Mae brightened up, and Bond smiled. Her question was one that had always, and would continue to vex all interpreters of stories. But at the very least, he didn’t want to make a decision on which way was right.

Just as their conversation had come to an end, it seemed the preparations for the performance were now complete.

“Without further ado, let us begin.”

Standing on a platform, Maya gave a bow, and with that the curtain rose.

Footnotes:

[1] Leman Street is a little to the north-east of the Tower of London and St. Katharine Docks, and within walking distance of both.

T/N: Is this chapter some meta-level commentary on the series itself?! omg

#moriarty the patriot #yuukoku no moriarty #yuumori #english translation #forbidden games

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kaialone · 4 years ago

Text

Kirby Planet Robobot Translation Comparison: Meta Knightmare Returns

This will be a comparison of the original Japanese version and the US English localized version.

Specifically, this will cover all the cutscenes that appear in the Meta Knightmare Returns mode.

You can also watch these cutscenes for yourself in English (1, 2, 3) and Japanese (1, 2, 3).

For the comparison, the usual points apply:

Bolded is the original Japanese text, for the reference.

Bolded and italicized is my translation.

Italicized is the official NOA translation.

A (number) indicates that I have a specific comment to make on that part in the translation notes.

As you read this, please keep in mind that with translations like these, it’s important not to focus on the exact literal wordings, since there is no single “correct answer” when it comes to translations.

Rather than that, consider the actual information that is being conveyed, in which way, and why.

Encountering Star Dream:

Star Dream:

……R…E…A…… ……D…Y……………・＞

...R...E...A... ...D...Y... ->

L...O...A...D...I...N...G...

Star Dream:

……………………。

...

.........

Star Dream:

アナタが…新しい… ゴシュジン様…デスネ。

YOU must BE... the new... MASter.

You must be... the new admin.

Star Dream:

……ナルホド、とてもツヨイパワーをお持ちのヨウデ…。

...UNDERSTOOD, it APPEARS that you possess quite TREMENDOUS POWER...

Yes. You possess incredible power...

Star Dream:

……………… OK＞

...OK >

...OK.

Star Dream:

…デハ、ソンナゴシュジン様ガノゾム…

...THEN, AS SUCH A MASter WOULD DESIRE...

As a new admin, you must supply your credentials...

Star Dream:

コノ星でも… カナリの強サを持つ…

YOU SHALL be given... THE OPPORTUNITY TO CLASH with a "sword USER"...

to the strongest warriors of this planet.

Star Dream:

「剣のツカイテ」と、タタカワセテ…さしあげマショウ。

WHO possesses CONSIDERABLE strenGTH... even for THIS planet.

Executing Sword_Master.EXE.

Before Battling Sectonia Clone:

Star Dream:

……おみごとデ、ゴザイマス。

...MasterFULLY DONE.

...Impressive.

Star Dream:

ゴシュジン様にはショウショウモノたりナカッタかもしれマセンネ。

Perhaps THIS was A LITTLE UNsatisfactory for you, MASter.

That may have been a bit too easy for the admin...

Star Dream:

ソレでは次に、美シクまうようニ剣をアヤツる…

SO then, for THE next one, the most powerful queen...

Next up is one whose swordplay resembles a beautiful dance...

Star Dream:

最強の女王を、ヨミガエらせマショウ。

WHO HANDles her blades liKE A beautiFUL dance, shall BE RESURRECTED.

Let us bring back the most powerful queen from the void.

Star Dream:

ソノたぐいまれな戦いのセンスと王たるオーラ…

HER exceptional APTITUDE for battle, and her majestic AURA...

Experience her royal presence and unparalleled fighting skills.

Star Dream:

ドウゾゴたんのうクダサイませ。

PLEASE, ENjoy them thoroUGHLY.

She will be a fitting test for you.

Before Battling Galacta Knight:

Star Dream:

サスガ、ゴシュジン様デス。ではサイゴに…

WELL DONE AS ALWAYS, MASter. Now, FOR THE LAST one...

You are mighty indeed. Now for the final test...

Star Dream:

かつてのゴシュジン様にハキンジられてイタ…

THE "Spacetime Transfer Programm", WHICH the previous MASter had FORBIDDEN...

This was prohibited by the previous admin...

Star Dream:

「時空テンイプログラム」をアンロックシ、

SHALL BE UNLOCKED,

Preparing to boot the Space-Time Transport program...

Star Dream:

イニシエの時代ノ剣士ヲ、ヨビダシマショウ。

TO CALL FORTH A swordfighter from ANCIENT TIMES.

Let us bring back a legendary swordsman from a forgotten time.

Star Dream:

…カレにコノあたりノ星ハホロボされてシマウと思イマスガ…

...IT STANDS TO reason that HE is LIKELY TO DESTroy the SURrounding planets, BUT...

He may end up destroying a nearby planet or two, but such is life.

Star Dream:

キット、サイゴノタタカイを楽シンデイタダケルことデショウ。

You will MOST CERTAINLY find THIS LAST BATTLE to be enjoyABLE.

The benefits of this final battle outweigh the collateral damage.

Star Dream:

ソレでは………！

NOW then...!

Prepare yourself...

Star Dream:

時空テンイプログラム… アンロック… 異空間ロード… リブート…

UNLOCKING... Space Time Transfer Program... REBOOTING... Another Dimension Road... (1)

Executing Space-Time Transport... Extra-dimensional road... Booting...

Star Dream:

…………３

3...

Star Dream:

…………２

2...

Star Dream:

…………１

1...

Star Dream:

…………………GO!!

...GO!!

...BEGIN!

Translation Note:

I’ll go over it in more detail in the section below, but the term I translated as “Another Dimension Road” is called 異空間ロード/Ikūkan Rōdo in Japanese. This term previously appeared in the Japanese version of Kirby’s Return to Dream Land.

Comparisons & Thoughts:

Since the cutscenes of Meta Knightmare Returns all occur towards the end and are pretty short, I decided to cover all of them in one post like this.

Still, just because they’re short doesn’t mean there is nothing to talk about.

It’s only mentioned briefly in these cutscenes, but I want to go over the term I adapted as “Another Dimension Road” in slightly more detail.

In the original Japanese version, the term is 異空間ロード/Ikūkan Rōdo, which first appeared in the Japanese version of Kirby’s Return to Dream Land.

To start off, 異空間/Ikūkan by itself could be translated as something like “different dimension", “different space”, “different realm”, or anything along those lines, 異/i meaning “different”, and 空間/kūkan meaning “space” or “dimension”, and the like.

This term has come up a few times in the Kirby series since Return to Dream Land, and the Japanese version of Star Allies actually gives it the English reading “Another Dimension”, which is why I also like to adapt it as that.

The term 異空間ロード/Ikūkan Rōdo, adding the English word “road” to it, also comes up a few times in Return to Dream Land.

Given what I explained above, I like to adapt it as “Another Dimension Road”.

Magolor mentions this term when he talks about his home, saying that it’s far away, but that it’s connected to Pop Star via 異空間ロード/Ikūkan Rōdo.

The English localization of the game adapted this as “interdimensional tunnel” in this instance.

Also, the cutscene that is called “Final Battle” in the English version is simply called 異空間ロード/Ikūkan Rōdo in Japanese.

Going by that, it seems safe to assume that this term can refer to the “road(s)” that connects different dimensions, realms, or the like.

Now, there is a lot more I could potentially talk about with these two terms and how they come up in the Kirby series, but it would be too long for this section here.

I might make a dedicated post just for that at some point, if that would interest people.

So, most relevant to Planet Robobot, is the fact that “Another Dimension Road” is a term we had seen before in Return to Dream Land.

The English version might be trying to keep the connection to Return to Dream Land by adapting the term as “Extra-dimensional road“ here, possibly referring to the Extra Mode of that game.

Back to Planet Robobot, here’s something potentially interesting about Star Dream in these cutscenes.

You’ll find that in both Japanese and English it uses about the same speaking style as it did during its appearance in the main story.

And the English version actually adapts it in the same way as it did back then, so I appreciate the consistency there.

Like before, the English version has it use some more computer-like sounding phrases here, like saying “admin” instead of “master”.

Most notable as a change is probably the phrase “Sword_Master.EXE”, which would imply that Star Dream might have a dedicated program just for either cloning Dark Matter Blade, or sword users in general.

But what’s really interesting to me is something else.

Now, I don’t know if this is just a coincidence, but Star Dream does not refer to itself in first person at any point in these cutscenes

With the way the Japanese language works, this isn’t all too uncommon, but it still stands out a bit, because Star Dream referring to itself in first person during the main story was a notable trait it had.

A machine wouldn’t normally refer to itself like that, so Star Dream doing that seemed like a result of it gaining a sense of self during those events.

And keep in mind that those events, namely Star Dream fusing with Hatlmann’s spirit, don’t actually occur during the story of Meta Knightmare, meaning Star Dream actually should not have a sense of self in this scenario.

So, Star Dream not referring to itself in first person during these cutscenes could be meant to reflect that? But that’s just my guess.

In any case, because of the above, I decided to adapt its dialogue in these cutscenes without using any first person either.

And from what I can tell, it looks like the English localization may have thought the same thing, since they also don’t use any (singular) first person for Star Dream here.

I realize this means there isn’t any difference between versions when it comes to this aspect, but I still wanted to mention it, because it’s easy to miss.

In the Japanese version, Star Dream’s dialogue here contains more direct references to Milky Way Wishes, with it using several of the same phrases that Galactic Nova used.

Most notably, this includes it counting down from 3 and finishing the counter with the words “Go!!”, which is also referenced during its boss battles.

In the English version, these phrases are slightly rewritten and don’t match Galactic Nova’s dialogue from either English version of Milky Way Wishes, with the countdown in particular ending with “Begin!” instead.

As a result, that final line also no longer matches the visuals of Star Dream’s final boss battle.

If you only look at the text in this game right here, it does make sense to rewrite these phrases slightly, “Begin!” certainly sounds more appropriate than “Go!!” out of context.

But this, combined with the fact that any other subtle reference to Milky Way Wishes in the text so far has been glossed over in English makes me think that the English localizers either didn’t realize that these were references, or ended up ignoring them for some reason.

Whatever said reason may be, I still think it’s a shame, because when you add all of them up, there is a great deal of connections to Milky Way Wishes in this game’s text that are lost in the English version, leaving it only with the visual and musical references.

And those are still nice, don’t get me wrong, but it still feels like you’re missing out just a little.

Somewhat related to the above, Star Dream’s reasoning for its actions in these cutscenes is quite different between versions, changing a lot about the context of what is happening.

In the Japanese version, Star Dream seemingly comes to the conclusion that Meta Knight wishes to fight strong opponents. So, the reason why it proceeds to summon several powerful warriors is specifically because it is attempting to comply with that desire.

And that really seems to be all there is to it in the Japanese version, no apparent additional motivation other than to satisfy its new master Meta Knight.

At most you can speculate whether or not Meta Knight really was actively wishing for this to happen, or if Star Dream was misinterpreting him, but...

Considering this is a direct parallel to Meta Knightmare Ultra, and Meta Knight did wish for something exactly like that over there, I’d wager it’s safe to bet Star Dream’s assessment of him was at least partially accurate.

And of course, this also gives Star Dream another direct parallel to Galactic Nova.

In the English version, Star Dream instead states that Meta Knight has to supply his credentials, and thus all the battles that follow are portrayed as “tests” for Meta Knight.

This also implies that Star Dream would probably test any potential new admin in such a manner, in contrast to the Japanese version, where Star Dream seems to accept Meta Knight right away without question.

I know that this particular change has caused English-speaking fans to speculate what sort of test Haltmann may have had to pass, which can be interesting of course.

But for the reference, no such tests seem to exist in the Japanese version.

And still related to the above, in the English version, Star Dream states that Meta Knight must supply his credentials “to the strongest warriors of this planet”, which might even be a small translation error?

Because in the Japanese version, Star Dream only states that Meta Knight will have the opportunity to “CLASH with a sword USER… WHO possesses CONSIDERABLE strenGTH… even for THIS planet”, so that latter part is only referring to the clone of Dark Matter Blade.

There is no clear plural in Japanese, so one could interpret the Japanese line as referring to all three warriors that Star Dream ends up summoning, but since it gives a little introduction for Sectonia Clone and Galacta Knight, I think it’s more likely this line right here was just its introduction for Dark Matter Clone.

The English phrasing also makes you wonder why Star Dream would even summon Galacta Knight, who’s not taken from this planet, or even this era for that matter.

It just kinda doesn’t add up when you think about it more.

And that’s about it for these cutscenes.

The most notable change is the completely different reasoning behind Star Dream’s action here.

I personally feel it gives this entire ending scenario a different vibe, and potentially the implication of what Meta Knight’s role in it is, considering the parallels to Meta Knightmare Ultra.

With that, we have covered all of the cutscenes of Kirby: Planet Robobot, but we are not done quite yet.

There is still more story to this game, so for the next part, we will start tackling the pause screen descriptions of the boss fights!

Feel free to check it out!

< Previous Part | Start | Next Part >

#kirby #kirby of the stars #kirby planet robobot #planet robobot #kirby translations #my translations #planet robobot translation comparisons #kirby planet robobot spoilers #planet robobot spoilers #robobot spoilers

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yuzusorbet · 5 years ago

Photo

Continuing Kikuchi-sensei's book 'Strongly, beautifully,....'

Chapter 3

3.4 Looking at deviations of the torso 3.5 Icing as a recovery method (not translating these 2 sections; I may come back to do them after I have done the parts that interest me most.)

3.6 Experiencing the world's stage as trainer

The season after Sochi Olympics, that is, 2014-15 season. It was hard for Yuzuru to get into good condition. The 1st competition, Finlandia Trophy, he withdrew because of back pain. Yuzuru was in Canada and I did not know of his injury. I only knew about it from the news.

But, one week before GP series Cup of China, held in November 2014 in Shanghai, I received a message on my smartphone.

"Sensei, can you come to the competition in Shanghai please?" "Didn't you say that the Canadian trainer will accompany you?" I replied. After a while, "Sensei, come to Shanghai and do treatment for me please....?"

Because in the previous season, he had told me, "For competitions in Japan, please may I have your care, but for overseas competitions, the trainer in Canada will go with me, is that alright?" Perhaps he felt a sense of guilt. He was probably fiddling with Pooh-san's ear and hesitating for some time before sending the message.

"Alright, I understand. I will be there," I replied. I cancelled all my plans for the week ahead and went to Shanghai.

After a long absence, when I touched his legs, I felt the confirmation of his evolution, and also, in my heart, I felt some sense of relief that I could do treatment for Yuzuru again.

2014 December, GP series NHK Trophy in Osaka. Yuzuru, far from ideal condition, headed for competition. His short programme was only 78.01, and with scores lower than any he had in recent time, he finished in 4th place. He managed to qualify for the GP Final in Barcelona which was for only the top skaters of the GP series.

Right after NHK Trophy was over, Yuzuru came to my hotel room.

"Sensei, can you also come with me for the Final?" he said. "Oh? For Europe, the other sensei (Canada) will go with you, didn't you say that?" I was also being mean. "But, sensei,........" his eyes made the plea. "Ah, seems like it's unavoidable, shall I go to Spain and see Sagrada Familia as well?"

In this way, I was called back to be Yuzuru's personal trainer.From then on, for competitions in Japan and overseas, support for Yuzuru was done by me. Well, to him, I think it's because he has known me since he was little, and calling me "sensei, sensei" is easy and comfortable. But to me, it became a major event that happened in my life.

3.7 PyeongChang Olympic season, starts

2017-18 season, also an Olympic season. First competition, Autumn Classic, Yuzuru had a world record score of 112.72 for his short programme, breaking the previous record which was held by himself. The media, in anticipation of a 2nd Olympic gold, saw it as a good start towards PyeongChang Olympics, but......

After Autumn Classic, I met Yuzuru; his body that had been loaded with training, headed for competition at GP series Rostelecom Cup, could not be said to be in very good condition.

That not-ideal condition indicated the pressure of a 2nd Olympic win. In summer, he was pushing himself hard and the body was very overworked. The thoughts of 'must win' put a great burden on his legs. Putting multiple quadruple jumps into his programme layout was extremely demanding on the ankles.

I thought it was not so hard to win at PyeongChang Olympics if he maintained the level of record-breaking 2015-16 NHK Trophy and GPF. It seems his coaches also told him "you don't have to overdo it to that extent".

But, Yuzuru thoroughly pushes himself hard. "Not doing it, is not me" he says and continues to practise so that he can raise the level. Even if someone said "stop!" he would still continue to skate.

The Olympics becoming a heavy burden, there was not a single word of this from Yuzuru's mouth. He did not show it even in his behaviour. But when I touched his legs, I knew. To what extent was the harsh training he had put in.

For Yuzuru who has an overabundance of fighting spirit, I felt a sense of uneasiness. Unfortunately, my premonition came true. 2017 November, GP series NHK Trophy in Osaka, during official practice, he fell on a quad lutz. The ligaments of his right foot were damaged.

After he was injured, we were talking and joking and laughing. If we did not keep the mood cheerful, Yuzuru would be too pitiful. When he fell, I knew it was a serious injury. If it was the usual sprain, my treatment could help in some way. But not this time. Yuzuru had to withdraw from NHK Trophy. The trainer from Canada and a doctor took care of him and I returned to Sendai.

A long recovery period was needed for his foot. He was absent for Japan nationals. He remained in Toronto, undergoing treatment, and prepared for the Olympics. I could not be at peace. The condition of his injury, I only knew about it from the news, as usual.

It was about a month and a half before PyeongChang Olympics. Yuzuru's father, holding a form for registering the size of sportswear and blazer for the Japanese delegation, came to my clinic. Same as 4 years ago for Sochi Olympics. "How is Yuzuru?" I asked, but Yuzuru's father only smiled and nodded, as he always does.

But it was definite that Yuzuru would compete at the Olympics. What I could do was, no matter what the situation, to send him into the rink in the best condition. And I was ready.

3.8 Do carefully one by one

The free skate at PyeongChang was at an earlier timing than the usual competitions, and the practice started from 8.25am. Without getting all worked up like at Sochi, I could face it calmly this time. That morning, the taping for him was completed at first try.

Yuzuru did not say anything. Of course, his foot could not be said to be in very good condition. My role was to help him get the ideal feeling that he wanted in his legs and I believe it went very well. Warming-up also had no problems.

Supporting Yuzuru's beautiful performances are his well-trained body and senses. Elegant jumps and spins are created by his steady torso and ability to sense tiny differences. These are important for flowing movements. That is why Yuzuru is always concerned about the training of the torso and any deviations.

And so, about one year before PyeongChang Olympics, torso awareness training was introduced into the warm-up schedule. There was a video showing Yuzuru sitting on a bucket with wheels and moving around; that was one of it. People who saw it may have thought, "What is he playing?"

That is a custom-made product, a bucket-shaped chair fitted with wheels used for wheelchair basketball. To move around freely on it, one has to be very conscious of the transverse abdominal muscles that surround the abdomen, the erector spinae muscles that support the spine, and other such parts of the torso; it is a training device. It is well-known that the balance ball is effective for conditioning the torso. However, it is not enough for a torso that supports the flowing movements of figure skating. Quadruple jumps do not go directly above the head. They go forward 3 to 4 metres while rotating. And so, (thinking) can't we condition the torso while moving forward, backward, left and right, this bucket-chair was developed.

Usually I would say "next, bucket", and Yuzuru would sit on it and move around, like writing the character "ハ" (t/n. this is number 8 in kanji). At the warm-up of the short programme, he jokingly said, "Sensei, I've become good at this." For the free skate warm-up, even though I did not give the instruction, he himself went to sit on it and started moving around quietly. What he did was exactly the same as how I had pictured it in my mind.

As he often says, "When I am focused, I know very clearly what I need to do."

The last part of warm-up was always, still in gym shoes, jumping straight up with rotations on the spot. Doing this, one will know if there is any shift in the body's axis.

At this time, I once again felt "this guy is incredible..." and got goosebumps all over.

In the tension, there must have been countless times of feeling almost crushed by the considerable pressure. Nevertheless, he spent his days pushing himself hard, and studying and researching all that he could. And raise himself higher, refine his skills, brutally overwork his body...... 4 years of it, for the sake of this moment.

Perfectly conditioned. To Yuzuru who was heading to the middle of the rink for his free skate, the only thing I could do was to say, "(You're) alright, so just do carefully one by one." But I don't know if he heard me.

[end of chapter 3]

[some sentences are left out or summarised]

Translated by me from this Japanese book by Akira Kikuchi: https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E5%BC%B7%E%… (please consider buying it, if you can)

(photos: searched from internet)

#Yuzuru Hanyu #Akira Kikuchi #kikuchi sensei

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