#;rick & his deceased fiancee;

[lolozhaoworld]

Do you believe in Affinity?

Suddenly wanted to write about the story of affinity. However, before we get to that, what led to it? 

Well 3 things: 

1. Jackson wang 100 ways

2.  TỰ TÂM - NGUYỄN TRẦN TRUNG QUÂN

3. My love for interesting stories

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZS3ZS7Y1oQ

Jackson Wang-100 ways (Behind the scenes)

During behind the scenes, Jackson says that the story of 100 ways is about a warrior and a prince that both fall in love with a girl. The prince kills the warrior and the warrior waits 1000 years to finally be with her. Although I’m not sure which story this is, I suspect it’s a historical Chinese tale or perhaps an ancient Greek legend. Regardless, I was pleasantly surprised that his MV was based on a story. It felt like a cherry on top because it peaked my interest by adding depth and space for the mind to imagine and wander. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GuR_g75ufY

Then, soon after I saw TỰ TÂM - by NGUYỄN TRẦN TRUNG QUÂN which was mindblowing. 

Just seeing the background setup, clothing, props, everything, lord knows how much their company spent on all of this. Must have been a fortune, especially since generally even a simple single backdrop setup would be around the 5 digit range. 

From perfect lighting to intricate clothing, to the setting and detail, everything is absolutely beautiful. They really put a lot of work into the MV👏👏  

And although I don’t understand Vietnamese, the music is alluring and the story overflows with detail, capturing everything that the audience needs to know within 8 minutes. Watching it, you don’t even feel that it is 8 minutes long.

As we go on, we find out that it’s actually a 2 part series and in the second MV there’s more to the story. Not to spoil too much, it captures the story of love that slips away, a love that can’t be grasped no matter how much one wants to. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d6IiLmjQYg

And that leads me to the story of affinity. 

Why do we love some, but are unable to be with them? Why do we like some, but are unable to get closer to them? Why do we have interest, but never meet some? 

Perhaps, the story of affinity explains it all. Affinity is a story that I once read in a book when I was 12 years old and ever since then, I became so intrigued with the idea and have always wondered about affinity between people.

If you’re ready for the story, let’s enter.

The story of affinity (缘分)

Once upon a time... there was a young scholar who left his hometown for the imperial examination. Just before he left, he made a pact with his fiancee that when he returned, they would get married on a certain day of the year. However, when he returned, he found that she had already wed another. Struck by the news, he became unable to eat or sleep and fell devastatingly ill.

One day, a monk passes by and sees the scholar and his dire. The monk, wanting to help him, pulls out a mystical mirror and shows the scholar a scene:

As he stares into the mirror, a body appears. It is the dead body of a woman laying on the side of the road. As the body lays lifelessly on the ground, a passerby emerges. Approaching closer and closer, he simply glances at the woman, shakes his head and keeps on his way. Not soon after the first passerby leaves, another person appears. This time, the man takes off his clothes, covers the body and then leaves. 

However, even with the clothes, the body still laid noticeably on the side of the road. After quite a bit of time, a third person appears. This time, the third person digs a pit on the side of the road and carefully buries the body. 

The monk turns to the scholar and explains, “The female corpse on the road was the past life of your fiancee. You are the second person who passed by; the one who gave her your shirt and covered her with it. She fell in love with you in this life, only to repay you with her affection (love). However, the last person is the one who buried her. That is her current husband; the one she is to repay for a lifetime.”

Suddenly, it all became crystal clear for the scholar.

This is a Buddhist story that talks about the lifetime of a person and all that has to do with affinity. In the story, all three men had a chance to meet with the woman, but all three treated her differently. What they gave was different, so each of their endings and relation with the woman was different in the next life.

In the vast sea of people, we meet many individuals. Just like these people, some we meet but never get to understand. For others we meet, we get to come together fall in love with; but never to stay together for a lifetime. And for some, we get to walk down the path of life and grow old together.

Just like the story tells, the first person that passed by without doing anything is similar to those that you meet but never get to know more about. The second person that gave her the clothes is the ones that you date and love, but without fruition. And lastly, the third person is the one that saved you in the past, only for you to return this favor in this lifetime.

In this story, there may be some concepts that seem foreign to many. One example may be: Why does the woman have to return the favor for a lifetime just because the third person buries her?

This is because historically, burying someone is a sign of respect and allows their soul to rest peacefully. Giving their physical body a place to rest allows them to pass on in peace and reincarnate.

In Chinese culture, burying someone well is important because it is viewed as a sign of respect to your ancestors, who will in turn bless you and future generations to come. There are many superstitions and folk/regional rules about how and where to bury the deceased, along with how they and their graves are to be treated afterwards. 

Many believe that by following these rules, it affects their luck and how their future generations live. If they happen to get rich, people will say “you buried your ancestors well” or “your ancestral grave is buried in a good place”- often referring to the Feng Shui aspect that’s connected to it. And if bad events continuously happen or a major bad event happens, some may wonder if it’s because they chose a bad location for the grave or if they’ve somehow angered their ancestor’s spirit by not doing something correctly.

Tying this back to the story, the third person showed respect to an unknown woman and went out of his way to bury her. He gave her soul a place to rest and allowed her to move on and reincarnate. In a way, he took care of her in the form of a duty that would only be carried out by family. Thus, in the next life she repays him by becoming his lifelong family; his wife.

Anyways, Affinity is an interesting story that I came by when I was very young. At that time, I thought the concept was so interesting (just as much as I think Rick and Morty series or the Fermi Pardox is interesting). It kind of ties in with the lesson of karma and that what we do can affect us in different ways. If we take a step forward, our story can change, and that in turn can also create a change in someone else’s life. Regardless of whether we believe in reincarnation or not, relationships are built on taking that step forward. Without the back and forth interaction, we kind of seem like the first passerby; the one that looks and walks away.

For now, I choose to be the onlooker. #Social distancing #Goodnight

[rick-xxstevensx-blog]

I still hear your voice when you sleep next to me I still feel your touch in my dreams Forgive me my weakness, but I don't know why Without you it's hard to survive 'Cause every time we touch, I get this feeling And every time we kiss I swear I could fly Can't you feel my heart beat fast, I want this to last Need you by my side 'Cause every time we touch, I feel the static And every time we kiss I reach for the sky Can't you hear my heart beat so I can't let you go Want you in my life.

Excerpt from the lyrics of “Every Time We Touch” by Cascada. (slow version)

My poor besotted, romantic, sap of a damaged & serious baby ;”)

[rick-xxstevensx-blog]

what was your life before coming to mystic like?

“I assume you meant to say New Orleans?” Rick mused as he looked over to the other. Sitting in a hunched over position on an armchair with his arms crossed resting on top of his knees, he then muttered simply with not much of an emotion to his normal sombre voice,” I had simple, middle-class childhood with my family. Well, as simple as you could get with a family who was very passionately hungry about their secret hereditary side-business,” he said wryly, not bothering on elaborating what he really meant by his family’s ‘side-business’ presently. “I hated the lifestyle and fate my parents, my older siblings and most my Stevens relatives were half-forcing and half-pushing me to do. And I hated their family legacy principles and beliefs,”he said sharply with a frown creasing on his forehead.  Thus, I never really got along with that aspect of my growing up daily life with them, and I fortunately and eventually managed to get out of my family’s side business entirely by managing to graduate from my high school veyr early at the age of 16 and then directly leaving my hometown for college and then medical school. And I’ve never looked back since.” Though, truth to be told, Rick secretly knew that he eventually did get caught up a little bit in his family’s legacy trade during the 4 years when he was unrelentingly seeking revenge for his beloved deceased fiancee’s murder. He wasn’t a hunter, but over the last 8 years, he still every once in awhile was embroiled in the supernatural world a little bit whenever he did what he could to save any innocent humans who were being attacked by some supernaturals with bad intentions. And now here he was, to his extreme irritation, embroiled back again into the supernatural world going-ons, because of some big storm looming ahead with the whole heavy matter of the deceased coming back to life. “And actually-..”he gave a very small humorous smile, “ -I did stop by Mystic Falls for a few months during my travels sometimes during the past 8 years. Cute little town, but not one I recommend anyone to stay permanently in,”he commented dryly, not bothering to elaborate further too at this part.

[rick-xxstevensx-blog]

was that ( m.bomer)? no, it’s just ( richard “rick” stevens). they are the ( 38-38) year old ( human ). i heard they’re ( compassionate and loyal  ) but also ( distant and guilt-stricken ). rumor has it they ( haven’t ) pledged allegiance to the hollow. i must warn you, neutrality is not an option.

Alrighty, so I finally had time to sit down and do up a proper intro post for rick!:D ⚜ So here’s somewhat of a complete but a lil informal bio for Richard “Rick” Stevens. ⚜ (do feel free to like this post if u want me to hit up yr ims to plot a connection or anything with him ;D )

He actually comes from a very long old line of excellent hunters, thus his whole family is hunters, and they are very skilled & they love it, lmao as they think the whole supernatural species are an abomination to the world, yada,yada(what else is new?:P) But Rick from a very young age never liked being a hunter, he hates it and dislikes his family history, so he got out of it and studied to become a doc instead as he loves helping and healing people.

Due to being blessed with a slightly high IQ brain and sharp-quick thinking senses, he managed to graduate from high-school early at the age of 16 and thus them promptly left his home town and especially his family legacy & secret line of work for good and way behind him (or so he thought at that time). He then went on to complete his bachelor’s degree with pretty high results within 3 years, before being accepted for medical school.

After getting his medical degree, he was then placed in a major NOLA hospital for his 1st year of residency placement at 23. At first he wanted to flee & plead as beast as he could for a deferment of location,  as he knew that NOLA was crawling with supernaturals & he wanted nothing to do with them,( as guy likes his normal & stable human life, tqvm :)P )..But then wham! Plans quickly changed when he fell head over heels in love with a human girl there and finally when they were 26, he believed her to be the love of his life, so he proposed to her & she immediately & happily accepted. But then she got killed (why do i love causing all my charries so much ache and pain, i have no idea XD) much later on, at the same year.

Now, when he and his now-deceased fiancee, embarked on their relationship together, they both at that time had absolutely no idea that she was a witch due to her being a rather unexpected late bloomer (meaning she would only come to her powers at a later age instead of during her childhood like most witches normally did or if she got triggered by a very traumatic event, which still hadn’t happened till up to the time she met Rick).  Most importantly, they both had zero inkling at all that she was actually the secretly, unknown granddaughter of the Regent of the Nine Covens at that time, Josephine LaRue (from the TO series) and hence she actually had powerful LaRue magic blood biologically running through her veins. I kinda have some sort of skeleton backstory on how the whole history of Josephine’s descendant line happened, but some details can definitely be discussed and there are still some gaps in the story which would be up to the player who takes that wc of his up, choice/say on some of those matters ;) Also, his deceased fiancee could have possibly finally found out she was a witch after analyzing a small number of events that happened to her both during her past and her few years in NOLA & could even be in the midst of secretly digging up her family’s history or whatever secrets they were hiding in their closet, before she was murdered. And yes, the murder did happen largely because she was Josephine’s granddaughter.XD Details of how, why and who murdered here can be let known & discussed thru ims if you’re interested in taking up this wc:)

Lots of shit and drama happened during the next 4 years after his fiancee was killed, that even involved Josephine taking  a part in the drama before she was killed off too during the latter half of TO’s S2 XD. What happened during the 4 years of drama after his fiancee died can be explained further if any of y'all are interested to know. Just IM me xx

And for the last 8 years, after that 4-year period, he has been traveling around, completed his doc’s course so he is a certified doctor, but he never stays still in one place for long. He has worked in hospitals or clinics b4, depending where he’s at the time, and but he mostly prefers working in either free clinics or mobile clinics. He also once in a while helps innocent humans who are being attacked by any  bad supernatural creatures with his hunters knowledge from his family, but he never kills them, only puts them down long enough for him and the person he’s saving to escape. He’s currently a rather broken shell of man on the inside causing him to be somewhat half the person he used to be in the past before that tragic event with his fiancee happened and the slightly traumatic aftermath of it.  And he doesn’t really know what to define himself anymore as he is deep down, plagued with dark & heavy guilt over two murders he committed as part of his revenge quest for his fiancee after she died. So nowadays, to most general people, he is a kind-hearted, helpful at most times,  but distant and rather brief person. He is only gentle & patient whenever he is with his patients, cos he's a trauma surgeon at a major NOLA hospital in town, and volunteers part time as a general doc/surgeon at a local free clinic on some of the nights every week. His personality can also be a lil rough round the edges/ gruff, sometimes can get irritated easily , sometimes gets impatient easily too and very blunt & directly straight to the point while speaking XD

He still has some parts of his own self in him especially like being kind, v helpful, protective intelligent, nice and when occasions calls for it, gentle,, but that’s mostly around people he knows well from the past and/or likes or his really closest friends :) He also tries to look out for his friends as best or as often as possible.

He has only recently returned to NOLA as of rn, cos he heard the news of many deceased ppl coming back to life here, so he’s back here again incase his (secretly, still-love of his life) deceased ex-fiancee happens to be resurrected too.