#Basically. the big problem is that. i left some NON PERISHABLE (or at least very long lasting) food items in here and uh

[twinknote]

help has anyone had to clean their car when it’s gotten to the point of being Actually filthy. like i’m not talking a bunch of trash and random shit. i’m talking like. it stinks. i cannot bear to go into details in this actual post bc i am Embarrassed but. i need some community support on this one folks

[demonslayvr]

VERSES RUNDOWN.

'fore blazing home came atumbling  ;  there was a family of four  (  childhood v. )

PRE GAMES  /  NOVEL’S  /  MANGA’s.   pretty clear  --  this is any interaction that has been plotted or otherwise during dante’s childhood til the fire.  by default he’s going to be about 6 - 8 years of age with the latter age at least a couple months before the fire.  

quite indeterminate yet the bang of a gun and the slash of a sword still remain a constant ( undetermined v  )

PRETTY OBVIOUS.   i haven’t made a decision where shit goes yet thus its undetermined.  will change during thread once we plot more on it or i figure something out myself.

not everything has a simple ending.  crashing demons is easy but other things ? that can be tough  (  multifandom v  )

GENERAL CROSSOVER / MULTIVERSE v.   pretty generic verse for when either dante himself or another character   outside   of the devil may cry canon gets tossed comes inside it.  i’ll probably branch off if and whenever i make verses for  in - fandom specific  threads when i build something for each one of them but this is it for now.  sometimes this verse tag will accompany another one  ;  which just means whichever verse he’s in and what you should follow development wise is connected. basically just a multi - fandom tag for crossover threads,  lads.   

die trash man  ;  take your sword and SHOVE IT  ( crack  )

GENERAL CRACK.   as the package says it’s just a verse / tag for crack whenever it happens.  sometimes it may 

a flash to a past that holds bitter air.  pain was a story here.  you wish not to go back   ( post dmc5 / alternate interaction v )

ALTERNATE INTERACTIONS.   pretty much like with the multifandom verse tag this one is simply going to go with   any   other version of himself dante interacts with.  might get latched onto with another verse tag just for my own sanity but  . .  yep.

low feelings  ;  simply moving along to find dangers and distractions ( devil may cry one v. ) 

SET JUST BEFORE,  DURING OR AFTER DMC1 AND BEFORE FOUR.  pretty much as the previous sentence says lads.  he’s an angstee boy but not as angsty as his two self i guess lmao.  but yeah,  this verse is a huge back track in terms of development and how he is in the verse   below  this one.

bang bang bang kiss of the gun & blade ; where are we?  (  post dmc5 - main )

POST DMCV.   follows the full OG dmcv canon til end  -  depending on interaction this could mean that any vergil written with and dante are in hell still doing whatever the fuck they please   or   after the fact and home and going on with their lives.  or trying  ;  considering vergil is back in his life and alive.  this is also the   DEFAULT   verse of the blog.

there's a fire in your veins that speaks your losses yet you continue to bend in remembrance (  atla / lok v.  )

SHUNNED.   known for killing his twin brother,  his very name and even more so in taking jobs to pay the bills   --  jobs that more so upset the delicate balance between the human and spirit realms.  

dante sparda   comes from the fire nation  -- his father a previous high general in the army  ; one that tried to broker peace in a time where it was unheard of while the fire nation ruled. his father met eva when he was traveling the earth nation and secretly begun a relationship with her.  their love was beautiful,  eventually in as much secret as possible eva bore two young boys:  vergil and dante sparda.

happiness was not to last however as wind was caught of the affair and the children,  leaving eva and the young sons to go on the run with sparda defending their escape.  the name sparda was drug through the mud as the man was never heard from again after that night. unknown what became of him as deflected firebending set the house ablaze.

short years pass,  spending it on the run from those who want to end the chapter of embarrassment  --  but it finally catches up.  one evening eva comes running,  telling her boys to go  --  to run and hide.  forget their names but stay at each other’s side.  the twins do as told and don’t look back  ;   the last time they see her.  however in their escape they end up separated,  captured by soldiers of the fire nation.  dante’s anger and despair of losing his entire family causes him to lose control  ;  lashing out on the soldiers that caught him and running away

“ you must change your name  ;  forget your past and start a new life as someone else.  “

that he does.  he changes his name and disappears,  alone.  fast forwarding a couple years he’s a spirit hunter  ;  taking jobs that rid   “  evil spirits  “  that cause issue or problem for anyone that pays a good amount.  a mercenary that cuts down those who’ve wronged the wrong person  ;  non and bender’s alike.  his father’s sword,  rebellion,  at his back to assist and create a dancing display of fire just as much as his bending.  he’s a difficult one to get close to but once you cool him off   (   haha )  he’s a loyal friend and ally.  

with the war over at the end of the series he’s more vocal of who he is  --  even though he was  previously   but with some of the fire nation’s  “ norms  “  kind of relaxing from fire - lord zuko’s rule   . .  he’s his father’s son.  his mother’s son.

lok  verses are basically  . .  kinda the same.  except i guess he’s older   . .  ??

pay off the debt to save your skin  ;  something within broke and former gentle soul crushed under weight ( dmc 2.0 v )

CANON DIVERGENT.  dante snapped,   perhaps it was inevitable  -  perhaps losing too many people tore what little the cambian could handle to pieces and the person that emerged from it was more a threat than he was before.  after the events of devil may cry 1 after realizing that he had  ( supposedly   )  killed his brother there was something in him that couldn’t handle it and everything begun to crumble.

in this timeline something in him changed, and while it wasn’t immediate  –  little things when he would have been understanding over a situation didn’t sit as they should.  but it happened quickly.  with trish’s betrayal he didn’t help her,  allowing her to get crushed by the tumbling rocks  ;  simply standing there and watch it happen.  its drawn out,  with him coming over to crouch beside her as she struggled to heal.  in his allowance bore cruelty,  snarling that she should have known better to betray him  –  mundus shouldn’t have done what he did and expect him to now not try and go after him.

he,  as he does in the normal timeline,  states that while she looks like his mother that she has no soul,  no fire and for that she’s just a puppet.  he shoots her more than once,  killing her   –   the last time he sheds a tear.  he reaches mundus,  who commends him for his actions yet the hybrid isn’t having it.  the fight with mundus goes about the same but with dante  killing him   for ultimately forcing him to murder his brother,  being the one who set the orders to   burn down   his home  –  twice   –  and turn his life upside down.

he goes through the portal mundus opened to  try   and escape and ultimately assumes himself as the  new king  of the underworld.  he still runs his business since even though he’s king there will always be factions that don’t   like it   due to his bastard blood and he’s more than happy to snuff it out.

his attitude is   mostly   intact   (  though this is said   loosely   since he’s less talkative and jovial   )   though now it’s unsettling at times since his jokes and humor can be a bit morbid  – let alone how his aura feels.  its dangerous and uncomfortable to be around  ;  his care for humans as a whole is almost non - existent except for a small inkling for lady.  

BIG NOTE:  THIS TIMELINE IS SET AFTER DEVIL MAY CRY ONE,  KIND OF   SKIPS FOUR    (    though it   IS   likely nero still exists but dante doesn’t care much about it  or know   )    SLIGHTLY INVOLVES TWO    ( aka:  dante gets annoyed that some idiot human is making helicopters messed up with demonic juju and wants to become king.  so he kills arius  )  AND INVOLVES   SOME CONTENT   OF FIVE.  

to enact your revenge most had been taken  ;  body & mind broken so it could begin   (  witcher v  )

———–   destiny.  you hear it more than you’d like to admit.  destiny is what brought your parents together  ;   one monster and the other a witch.  two were born,  twins and raised in care by the witch til fate came to pass and ripped the three of you left apart.  in trying to halt destiny the father,  sparda,  had done his best to hold it off  ;  disappearing one afternoon when the boys had been young   ——–   so long ago.  his hope ??   that staying away would bring a kinder reality and future.

fire and blood,  a mother doing best to protect her children was found disemboweled on the floor within the crumbled castle foundations.  the youngest child was told to hide,  hide away and if the mother didn’t resurface   . .  to run.  she didn’t,  but the youngest fought his way out of the castle   —-  skills of his mother surfacing with an aptitude for beast slaying in the same scope.  his father’s sword,  created by hellish and beastly means was his and aptly used to start a revenge   —  to   KILL   demons in his mothers name.  and in his brothers   —   as both were believed to have perished in the attack.

in a short time and with training the young hybrid killed demons for a price   ;   eventually catching the eye of a witcher.  the nature of the hybrid himself and the skills he held were of interest   —   brought to kaer morhen to be trained as a witcher.  almost losing himself in the process yet he endured,  it further altering his physiology that was already different with the hybrid nature he had.

with the trials and effective torture to   be   a witcher an astounding success he buried into the extensive training to pursue the beast that slayed his family while also being a monsterslayer for hire.  

———–   destiny.  you hear it more than you’d like to admit.   destiny and fate has brought you here.  brought you a thought lost ache in your heart for the family lost all to avenge them and   kill   the beast that killed   them.   you feign your disinterest,  your lack of care but there is much of it in soul.   destiny   is a cruel mistress,  son of sparda.  yet perhaps she may gift you the   KINDNESS   to provide retribution if you are to   live   long enough.

Notes 1:    with his father’s blood and how he is part beast,  his body temperature is more abnormally hot than normal  –  able to reach just below lava temperatures without it seeming to create any problems for him.   Notes 2:   his magic is mostly fire based,  secondly offensive  (   akin to geralt’s in show how it can push things back,  etc  ).  with the fire being used to distract he’s referenced to a dragon at times which he ignores. Notes 3:   dante’s still trans because i say so   ;   while magic used to be used to help him pass he’s since has procedure through coin to get effectively top surgery  —  the scars easy to pass off due to his occupation.  bottom surgery hasn’t been attempted but with becoming a witcher,  like the rest,  he’s infertile. Notes 4.    he’s   school of the wolf   because i said so,  wolves are cool and it has geralt so sue me  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

you wished you could forget ; everything else seems to blur but not him. not the brother you lost. (  IT v.  )

AFTER THE FIRE  you found yourself in foster care with your brother in tow. foster turned into adoption with the family that adopted the two siblings ended up bringing the two of them too derry,  maine.  immediately the youngest sibling knew something was off about the town  ;  the atmosphere unsettling but kept it to himself,  not wanting to blow the change he had with his brother at having a new life.  (   he and vergil are still cambion’s,  but their power is,  like,  kinda not as Large as it is normally.  still half demons tho folks.   )

the youngest had trouble settling in a new town,  smaller than the last  –   economically  (  as he and his twin were upper class before this )   and town size in general with more seeming conservative values.  he was lucky to find himself in a slightly liberal and understanding household as he was a transgender kid who no one knew any less of. something he was more careful to keep to himself.

everything was fine,  the brothers settled in and all was well until it wasn’t.  exploring the woods and the barrens  –  finally opening up to his brother that things were strange in the town and he could feel something off.  they went looking but in doing so  . .  there had been an opening of weakness for the two  –  distractions and a trap.  their mother,  burned and in pain asking for their help  ;  of course the two came closer.  there was a small difference in this faux recreation and trauma that dante noticed  –  calling out for his brother to stay away but,  unfortunately the youngest saw the eldest fall victim to the trap  –  terrified and running away when he couldn’t do anything but possibly fall victim too.

time passed,  school continued on with whispers and comments on how the twin had probably did it himself,  causing the kid to isolate himself from everyone even though he knew what he say.  adults didn’t believe him but there was a group that seemed to have had a run in with this   . .  fuckin’ clown.  

(   going off:  smol™ dante getting involved with the losers after he straight up talks to one of them about what happened and what he saw  /  big™ dante having gone off like the rest of the losers doing his own thing aka kill other demon / eldritch things as normal kinda sorta and then re - meet up with them  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )

same person but different mistakes  ;  still wrought pain upon brothers ( altered outcome / divergent v. )

CANON DMC DIVERGENT.   pretty much a what if  /  reversal if dante led the life vergil did instead of vergil himself.  it’s pretty much the same events but with dante the cause of them or involved instead of vergil.  his attitude is close to what 2.0 dante is but not entirely there in terms of destruction.  however he is still trying to deal with the aftermath of nelo angelo fame and dmcv’s whole thing.

ARISE ;  for you are reborn into something greater.   ARISE    baricontralto angelo - fight.  ( post dmc 5 div. nelo angelo dante v  )

HE HAD BEEN COCKY. the cambion had been cocky upon returning back with his twin from the underworld   ;   cocky that with his twin that nobody could beat them if they simply worked together.  and he was right.  he was right up until he was wrong and time,  well  . . time wasn’t kind.    it had been nine months   since their return from the underworld from cutting down the qliphoth and in that time a   familiar blue amulet   found itself back in dante’s possession.  it had been lost for several decades,  having been lost to the boy during the day he had come home to find gavreel and the family slaughtered on the lawn.

he kept it close,  he knew the meaning   –  he knew that there was   peace   again but  .  . he knew the danger of once again having this but would not dare get rid of it   –  he’d ride the coaster until it stopped.  he’d be happy to have this shred of happiness and he felt he was finally allowed to have something   –   happy to have his brother back and have some semblance of family.

that was,  well,  until he   lost   the amulet.  he didn’t notice that he did,  believing it was still in pocket during a small run in with demons  ;  a job that he had taken alone   –  it seemed that fate was playing her hand that day.   it had been dropped during an evasion and was lost upon his shift ahead   –  he didn’t even spot it.  the job became less easy,  it tiring him considerably as the  small group   of demons became larger   –   and while it was initially a challenge   . .

it soon became taxing.  as the larger the numbers the more exhausted the demon hunter became,  the more he started to slip up.

it was only then did he realize that this was no job.  it was a   trap   and he was caught in a net he couldn’t tear himself from.  a familiar feeling emerged,  one he   hadn’t felt   for decades.  a demonic force that he had thrown fury at that same time.  he hadn’t been this week before.  he knew who this was and   . .   he was in trouble.  this trap had been calculated and he had fallen into it hook,  line and sinker.

the distraction of the feeling,  of the demonic energy rising in the space leaves him vulnerable  –  attacks slicing at his back,  his arms and legs   –   a lucky slash to his throat leaves him struggling and gripping his throat.   he hits his knees before he realizes he does  ; he ultimately   —   unintentionally   —   bows    to the demon king before he passes out, demonic weapons and claws slashing into his back.

the next   redacted years   in the demon world are a nightmare that  post   angelo dante would have trouble remembering for all that happened are buried deep in repressed memories.  the years blur together,  but dante holds for a long time  –  dante suffers,  he burns,  he aches,  he struggles    –   he perseveres.  for a time anyway.   he recalls and holds onto the trade out  . .  that this could have been   vergil   here instead of he.  last minute changes,  bouts of laughter as he accepted the job and ran out the door.  

see you soon   he had said.  but the jovial air had long past.  memories begin to muddle,  to ebb and fade in and out as things became foggy.  a struggle to remember  –   a struggle to fight but   . .   not all fights can be won.  this one eventually was lost.

out of years of torturous pain and bloodshed arose a new pet,  a puppet that was loyal and true.  one that slaughtered doppelganger after doppelganger of brother and self,  of friends and allies that the king knew that the former knew.  he was satisfied that his little puppet would do just fine.  that perhaps he could lure in his old   ;   have the complete set  –  for use of the younger did fine in breaking the elder.

this soldier has two forms  ;  one that fed to his devil trigger (   generic nelo angelo  –  not much power is used for it  –  basically it’s dante on the regular tapping into demonic power with his first devil trigger.  he’s stronger than normal,  having given into his addiction to human and demon blood and grown more powerful because of it  )  

and another that feeds into his   sin   devil trigger  (  essentially the  ‘  dragon  ‘  -  esque look.  however its almost imperfect in how the black scales have become the darkish red  / brown  ;  something not quite right.  scales do fall off without warning from time to time, revealing a near lava like flow underneath.   )  

baricontralto  . .  a name to be used to not arouse suspicion  ;   a soldier that would destroy armies and bring cities to their knees in the name of his master.   time would be swift for the pawn to be used,  for the king himself was pleased.  he was cocky with his new toy  . .   and it wasn’t long before he was to be used   . .  

despite all your losses & destruction ; despite trauma &  trials  . .  my darling boy you’re still you. (  undertale v.  )

[  fight  ]                     [  act ]                    [  item  ]                   [ mercy  ]    

                                     ↳   [  dante sparda ]                                      ↳   [   check  ]

IT WAS UNPRECEDENTED.  a human and a monster coming together and falling in love.  falling in love after the war to a human   witch   that found herself in the closed off underground after a tumble.  sparda protected eva from the monsters at first,  keeping her under his care  –  yet the umbra witch found herself using her powers and skills to assist in healing a monster in peril.  

keeping eva out of harms way was  . .  difficult due to her humanity being a source of contention.  monsters wanted to escape.  eva rather enjoyed being alive.  in the end eva’s healing magic to save and protect those around her and her love and the fact that she was  older   and not prime use to open a proper exit to the human world.  asgore swore eva off limits to monsters as she was kind and a healer to them all.

in time sparda and her married and she bore two children  ;   hybrids   –   part monster and part human.

but not even the king’s word could stop those who still feared humans and humanity.  those who held   rage   toward a species that had caused so much trouble and locked them away for thousands of years,  if not more.   a fire erupted into the underground,  started at the quaint yet spacious house and spread further throughout the underground.  by the time it had been put out  –  eva had been recovered,  dead,  in the home attempting to escape herself but the boys nowhere to be found.  with her last ounce of magic she had sent her boys away,  far away and out of the underground and topside.

now alone and separated from his remaining family and traumatized by the attack to his home the hybrid remained alone  –  growing up such until he found himself protecting humanity against   other   monsters   ;   demons.  demons and monsters that had managed to stay in the human world but grew dangerous and lost themselves.   dante sparda grew to love his humanity yet slowly accept the monster part of himself.

with a job giving him   whispers   of the brother he thought he lost through his own hand now somehow residing in the underground  . .  he flew in to investigate,  still holding some anger over what had been done to his family yet   . .  holding   determination   and patience to deal with the rumors and what he’s about to come across.

[shannrussell-blog1]

Australia is a giant country, with more camping opportunities spread throughout than you’d be able to explore in a lifetime. Whether it’s in the high country of Victoria, or on a pristine beach tucked away in the southwest of WA you’ll find some world-class camping locations.

However, not all of them have running water, flushing toilets and hot showers. In fact, many have none of the above! In this post, we look at what it takes to be a self-sufficient camper, which allows you to camp in places where the facilities are lacking, or non-existent.

What’s the point of being self-sufficient?

You might think it’s a ridiculous idea to even consider going to a campsite without the facilities you’d get in a caravan park. The thing is though, if you are self-sufficient, you have your own gear and don’t need to be dependent on others providing it. It’s not a case of going without.

This dramatically opens up your options for where you can camp, and has a number of other benefits that we will look into below.

Self-sufficiency means you can experience campsites like this, that are further off the beaten track. Photo: Aaron Schubert

Make sure you are comfortable

I’m not going to suggest for a minute you should be camping like a cave man (although if that’s your style, go for it!).

Camping has this horrible stigma attached to it that’s uncomfortable. Some people firmly believe if you are going camping for the weekend you’ll be cold, uncomfortable and roughing it. The reality is this couldn’t be further from the truth, providing you have the right gear and know how to use it properly.

Nothing will ruin an amazing camping trip than being uncomfortable. Whether that’s getting wet and cold, being blasted by the wind, not being able to go to the toilet comfortably, or having a terrible sleep each night, there’s a huge range of ways that your camping trip can be uncomfortable. I firmly believe you should be comfortable when camping.

What are the benefits of self-sufficient camping?

There are many advantages of camping in a self-sufficient manner. Some are financial, and others are purely for a better experience. Either way, you are able to mix it up as you feel like doing so.

Our self-sufficient set up at Murchison House Station. Photo: Aaron Schubert

It’s much cheaper

There’s no doubt that if you provide your own facilities, the cost is cheaper. Caravan Parks, in particular, are the perfect example. I rang around a few months back and was priced $192 for 3 nights on an unpowered site for 2 adults and a baby. That’s not even on the high end either! Some caravan parks in peak season charge up to $100 per night.

Camping has historically been a cheap way to have a fantastic holiday, but when you’re paying more in camping fees than you would be if you rented a house, something is not right.

In many cases, self-sufficient camping allows for free camping entirely. If it’s in a national park, or shire run site, you will get charged $5 – $10 per person per night, which is still excellent value for money.

Usually, the less available facilities, the cheaper the camping is.

Escape the hordes of people

I like to interact with others, but when it comes to camping I’ve always found it’s much more enjoyable to have your own slice of paradise. I’d rather not be able to see any other campers –  to truly get away from everything and relax with friends and family.

Australia is a big place so there’s no reason why you can’t have your own slice for a few days at a time!

Caravan sites are great, but it’s great to be able to have your own space so you can relax. Photo: Aaron Schubert

Better locations

There’s no doubt that there are some truly spectacular campsites available with the facilities you need. However, in my experience, there’s often a better campsite up the road if you’re self-sufficient. Looking back at our camping experiences, the best ones have been in truly mind-boggling locations that you’d only go to if you were self-sufficient.

What do you need to be self-sufficient?

In actual fact, you don’t need anything overly fancy to be self-sufficient. People have lived off the land for years in a very simple lifestyle. Vary what you have based on how you want to live, but below are the basics.

Drinking water

At home, it’s easy to turn the tap on and get clean drinking water out. When you are camping though, it’s a luxury that’s often not available. Sometimes you can get water from creeks and rivers, and this is easily used for dish washing and showers. The simplest way to have clean drinking water when you’re camping though is to take it with you.

Options start off atwater bottles, which are cheap and straight forward. From there, you move into water tanks and bladders, and finally, reverse osmosis units and filtration systems. Some people split their water storage into drinking and non-drinking containers. Whatever the case, take enough clean drinking water and some more in case something goes wrong.

Our water tank and soap dispenser for washing our hands on the road. Photo: Aaron Schubert

Toilets

There are thousands of toilets in Australia. The problem though is there’s not usually one where you want to camp! Most Shire and national park run sites will have a drop toilet, but if you haven’t got access to one – what are your options?

The simplest and cheapest option is to dig a hole and do your business in it. You need a shovel, some toilet paper and a bit of time. Dig it at least 30cm deep, make sure all toilet paper is well buried (or burnt if safe to do so), and cover it in. Don’t go near creeks, rivers or lakes and populated walkways, and make sure it’s left clean.

Beyond that, you can get a huge array of portable toilets and stands to sit on. It’s not that hard, but it’s something that people need to urgent their attention to, as it’s becoming a massive problem out bush.

Don’t rely on public toilets, make sure you have a few options for going to the toilet when going off the grid. Photo: Aaron Schubert

Shower/bathing facilities

You can go a couple of days without a wash, but it gets a bit feral beyond that. Water is always an issue, as it’s heavy and hard to carry with you. That said, if you can get it from a creek or river, you won’t have any issues having a shower or wash. When water is short, just use a flannel and bucket to clean yourself. Boil the kettle and mix it with some cold water in a bucket. Alternatively, if you have access to a fire you can warm water in a stainless bucket.

When water is short, just use a flannel and bucket to clean yourself. Boil the kettle and mix it with some cold water in a bucket. Alternatively, if you have access to a fire you can warm water in a stainless bucket.

The cheap , which are very luxurious options!

Bathing facilities can be scarce, so a simple and effective option is a solar shower bag. Photo: Aaron Schubert

Lighting and 12V power

Never have we lived in a world where there’s better access to cheap, quality and efficient lighting options for camping. Headlamps, Lanterns and LED strip lighting are amazing, and lighting is no longer an issue when camping.

12V power has come along in leaps and bounds, and you can actually run a wide variety of gear off-grid without much difficulty.

Lighting is no problem, as there are plenty of 12V powered lighting options available now. Photo: Aaron Schubert

Warmth

There’s no doubt about it –  you have to be warm when camping. Fortunately, this is normally fairly easy if you dress appropriately. Bring clothing to suit the location you’re going to and make sure your sleeping bag is rated low enough. If it’s cold, you can usually have a campfire which goes a long way to staying comfortable.

Grey water collection

Some official ‘self-sufficient’ campsites require you to collect any grey water (dishwater and shower water). If this is the case, collect it in a tank or jerry can and take it out.

Knowledge

You have to understand how to use the gear you have, and when a decision needs to be made. If you can see a massive storm front in, perhaps it’s a good idea to delay the camping trip! A lot of this comes from experience. The best way to learn is to get out there and learn it as you go!

Consider how you’re planning on storing and refrigerating food on your trip. Photo: Aaron Schubert

Food

The food you eat when camping off the grid is going to be different to what you have at home. It doesn’t have to be vastly different, just think about your options for refrigeration, cooking, and cleaning. Some food lasts a long time, and others will perish quickly. 12V and gas fridges are easily run today out of a 4WD and open your food options up substantially.

Shelter

There have never been more choices for comfortable, self-sufficient camping in Australia. Tents have come a long way, and then there are more shelters, such as camper trailers, hybrids and caravans on the market than you can poke a stick at. These vary wildly in price and features, so get something that suits your needs and budget.

You’ve got so many options for shelter, here’s our tent set up at the most Western point of WA. Photo: Aaron Schubert

Initial expense vs return

You can’t deny that camping off the grid requires more gear. There is an initial expense required, how much depends vastly on how you want to do it, but if you’re camping regularly away from facilities you will save a fortune. For those who’ve done a lot of camping and travelling, you’d know fuel is usually the biggest cost, with food and camping fees next in line. Do a lot of free camping, and you’ll pay for your gear many times over.

The general guide for travelling around Australia as a family is anywhere from $450 – $1200 per week. If you are self-sufficient, you can easily save several hundred dollars a week in camping fees alone.

Start slow and progress forward

If you haven’t done much camping before, start slow and work your way up. Caravan parks are a fantastic place to camp, and when you know you are comfortable and what you have works, move onto a campsite with only a toilet, and then one without any facilities at all.

We’ve got an amazing country to explore, so see you out there! Let me know what you’ve got to make self-sufficient camping easier!

The post How to be a Self-Sufficient Camper appeared first on Snowys Blog.

[chibisquirt]

That Fic I Want

Okay, so @flange5​, @kagekanecavi​, and @trickyarchangel​ have succeeded in pulling me down into the abyss which is The Untamed.  (It is soooo preeeeetty!!!!  And the Stony vibes are *real* let me tell you!!!)  

Anyway, naturally, I want fic-- and because it’s me, and I am the *most* predictable, one’s a crossover, while one’s a first time fic.  I will maybe someday write one or the other of them, but I have way too much to do to start on them now, so summaries it is.  

The first-time fic is standard “yes of course Bubbles wants that fic” fic, and no one should be surprised because I am trash.

The crossover, otoh, is a Doctrine of Labyrinths crossover which turns into Fix-it Fic because fuck you, this is my wish-fulfillment, I’ll save my tiny hyper-competent girlfriend if I want to.  I know I could write it in such a way that you don’t need to know both fandoms to read it, you only need to one or the other...  Hopefully this description is readable like that, too.

Help me, I’m in hell.

So the first place this comes from is, “you know who it would be *hilarious* to throw at these two gay idiots?  Felix and Mildmay!”  Which means non-DoL people need to know who those are.  

Felix is a magic user, and Mildmay, his half-brother, is an ex-assassin, ex-thief.  They both have SO MANY issues, from their personal histories (both children of poverty and abuse, but Felix was trained to use the manners of the powerful magic-using class, while Mildmay lived on the street) to the power differential between them to personal losses they’ve undergone.  Mildmay does not have magic, which makes him “annemer.”  The MDZS guys would say that Felix is a cultivator, and Mildmay is not, but that right there is one of the hurdles to writing this fic.

The way magic is described in the DoL books does not line up with the way Cultivation is described in MDZS.  So you have to find a way to reconcile those two.  DoL describes the uses and even abilities of magic changing as you move to a different culture, so that accounts for some of it; MDZS describes the energies involved in such a way that annemer may well be able to practice cultivation, so that fixes the rest.  For the actual fic, it’s going to be a hell of a lot of fun to explore the similarities and differences in the two systems while still having a cohesive worldbuilding, but for the purposes of this summary, just know that the two are similar, but not the same.

So why do I want to write this nonsense?  

WELL...!

Felix is a powerful magic user, who used to be a child prostitute before being scooped off the streets by an INCREDIBLY abusive necromancer and trained as his protege.  He is incredibly talented, and eventually breaks free of the dark magic he was trained under, and the course of the books is basically one big story of him becoming a better person.  He is also as queer as a football bat, and proud of it. (One scene in the books in which he is voluntarily participating in an orgy is changed into a rape scene when he realizes that one of the participants is a woman.  He is That Gay.  He makes both LWJ and WWX look incredibly straight by comparison.)  He is glib, and clever, but with an addictive personality, and he’s prideful but for good reason, because next to him all the magicians in Corambis really do look a bit like morons.

Sound familiar, at all...?

Mildmay, on the other hand, was raised on the streets by a “thief keeper,” a woman in this case who taught him to use knives, and steal, and then-- when he got his face busted up and couldn’t be unobtrusive anymore-- to be an assassin, instead.  He has a large scar that makes his speech slur, so he rarely speaks or changes expression, but despite his troubled history, he is a Good Person, compassionate and actively *wanting* to be good.  He’s low-class-- and even when he has an opportunity to pretend to be high-class, he never takes it-- but he’s still, in his own way, a Gentleman.  He likes to tell stories, and to hear them; if he had been taught to read and write, he could easily have been a novelist.  Also he is apparently The Greatest Ever at cunnilingus, which really is the cherry on top of my adoration for the boy.

...Okay, so my MDZS folks all know now why I’m slavering to introduce these two assholes to LWJ and WWX, right?  Cool.  Glad we’re on the same page.

DoL ends with our heroes at loose ends in a country with an empire of unknown characterization and size across the sea from them; also, they live on the coast, and have a history of traveling.  So it’s easy to imagine that they ended up in Ygres for... some reason... and that Ygres borders the land MDZS is set in (which as far as I know doesn’t have a name???)  

So this story would start with Felix and Mildmay being called into an audience with the Ygressine empress, who was originally from the Wen clan.*

The Wen empress is pretty thoroughly Ygressine by this point, but still wants to do right by her tiny bits of remaining family.  She sits on her cushions and pets her cat and gives our boys a task.  

She tells our boys about the Sunshot campaign that ended her clan, and about the cruelty afterwards that finished off the last of them.  Then she says that one of her relatives managed to survive the purge after the war by putting her soul into a vessel.  “This cousin of mine, Wen Qing, was very skilled and very clever, and so she has been able to retain her life, but her body perished.  She was a friend of the Yiling Patriarch, and was sure that he could restore her to herself, but alas, he himself died only a few days after she did, long before she was able to reach his side.”  

“So she’s stuck,” Mildmay says.

“Unfortunately, yes.  She made her way to me, and I have kept her safe and comfortable as well as I can since.”  She strokes the cat again.  The cat lashes its tail.

“You want us to restore her,” Felix guesses, madly trying to figure out what he knows about necromancy and praying this chick hasn’t become a fantome or a rachenant in the meantime.

“I doubt you can,” the empress says, “you don’t even know the basics of swordsmanship. No, I want you to find the Yiling Patriarch, Wei Wuxian.”

“The dead one, you mean?”

“We heard the story from three different spies,” the empress says, smiling thinly.  “He has returned to life.”

Now Felix is hoping Wei Wuxian isn’t a fantome or a rachenant.  

“You will escort my cousin, Wen Qing, to his side, and remain with them until they have succeeded in restoring her.  They are both quite clever-- and you’re adequate, too, in spite of your poor education--”  Felix is so indignant, y’all--  “I am sure you will resolve this swiftly.”   

The cat stands up after one last pet, stretches, and starts walking towards the door.  “I have a purse and luggage all packed for you, lacking only any personal items of your own you would like to bring.  We’ll leave at first light,” she says.  She stands on her hind legs with her forepaw on Mildmay’s thigh and bats at his hand.  “Aren’t you going to carry me??  It’s too far to walk!”

Felix and Mildmay:  “What the actual fuck!!!!”

So Cat Wen Qing (Wen Qing-tten?) and the brothers make their way to the MDZS lands, where Lan Wangji is now Excellency and WWX is wandering around cultivating shit and Lan Sizhui is building a cenotaph with Wen Ning, both of the unaware that they are in for a very large surprise.  

And that’s the setup!  There are so many good things I can do with this, so many ways it can go!

They don’t know where WWX is, so they determine to as LWJ, who is about the only one Wen Qing can think of who might know and also tell them without trying to kill her.  They do this without realizing that LWJ is the Excellency now, because when they left Ygres with it’s spy network the news hadn’t happened yet.

LWJ isn’t telling a damn soul where WWX is, least of all foreigners with a talking cat.

He tells them to stay.  (This is actually so that he can get to know them and evaluate them, but god forbid he actually tell anyone that.)  

Felix meets Lan Xichen and is very sympathetic to his recent loss.  He has been there, okay, he knows how this goes!  

At some point they start actually talking about the difference between what Felix and Mildmay know as magic and cultivation, and Mildmay has the “oh god every single one of them is a necromancer!” epiphany/breakdown

Also under the category of “difference between cultivation and magic,” Wen Qing is aware that they have a problem.  Felix is a foreigner, who does not read or write the language, does not sing, does not play an instrument, and barely speaks the language.  So literally no one is going to listen to Felix as a Cultivator if he doesn’t have a sword.

She gets him a sword.  She makes him learn to use it.  It is very, very ugly.

Wen Qing is a better swordsman than Felix is, and she’s still stuck in the body of a cat.

When Mildmay laughs, she makes him learn the sword, too.  

At some point, someone challenges Felix to a duel.  Felix shrugs, then cheats.  

LWJ finds out about Felix’s appallingly bad sword skills, and makes him practice with the juniors.

Mildmay also knows the juniors, because he talks them into teaching him how to gamble.  Then he takes all their money.

His stake in this game is all of the hairpins from his braid, each one of which is worth one (1) story.  He has to tell a story first to prove he can, but once they realize he knows a whole bunch and they haven’t heard any of them, the juniors all hoard their collection of hairpins jealously.  They’ll ante in all of their money, but if they have one of his hairpins, they hold onto it.

Someone buys him a new set of hairpins at some point because his braid is getting really unmanageable.  

Then everybody else buys him increasingly nice hair ornaments until he has the prettiest red queue in Cloud Recesses.

Lan Sizhui at some point gets another family member back, which I think we can all agree he too deserves

Wen Qing finding out who SiZhui is, though

At some point, Cat Wen Qing runs into Wen Ning and just climbs him, racing up his chest and perching on his shoulders to yowl fish-breath into his face, loudly and repeatedly scolding him in cat-noises.  

Felix and WWX in a room together, building towers of bullshit in the air together.  I just... really need that to happen, so much

Wen Qing and Mildmay have a mutual “I’m not good enough” slowburn high-pine-content sort of romance.  They both *deserve* it, damn it, as well as their happy ending!

Wen Qing tries to fix Mildmay’s leg with acupuncture, and it doesn’t work but it does help some

Everybody underestimating Mildmay because he’s not a cultivator and then Mildmay pulls some Mildmay-esque stunt, like stabbing a man fifteen times before he blinks or going over a wall that they thought was unscaleable, and they all just lose their fucking jaws.

*for DoL people who don’t know, the Wen clan are the bad guys of the first half of MDZS, and then they’re defeated, and the cruelty towards defeated Wens drives the action of the second half of MDZS.  So there are good Wens, too.

[theastonishingkylejackson]

If You’ve Never Been to D4N, Day For Night In Houston, Maybe You’ve Missed Out… Or Maybe Not, According To The Astonishing Mr. Huval – Written By Chase Huval, Contributing Managing Editor for The Astonishing Tales Digital Magazine

Day 4 Night concert, 2017 in Houston

I attended this same festival last year for the first time.

It was my first festival here in Houston.

I didn’t know many artists in the lineup, but some friends were going and I decided to give it a shot, copping a ticket literally hours before the doors open (and paid $150 less than my friends who had purchased in advance) and went in blind.

I was amazed and overwhelmed by the combination of light and sound, the heavy, dominant feeling of the venue, and how much I enjoyed these artists that I had barely ever heard of (I think Odesza was the biggest act that i recognized on the lineup).

When the lineup for 2017 dropped and featured my favorite live performer of all time (Pretty Lights), possibly the last true rockstar (Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor), and quite a few acts that I was a fan of, or very curious to see live (Tyler, the Creator, of Montreal, Pussy Riot, Jamie XX, Cardi B), I could not contain myself and planned to go from that day (back in July maybe?).

I remembered how much fun it was that first year. I remember how breathtaking the art was, and how it was married with musical performances. I remember it being the first festival that bills itself as a music and arts festival to actually put art on the same pedestal as the music. And two of my best friends from Louisiana were coming in for a wild weekend.

Entry and security was a complete joke. Don’t get me wrong, I’m always thankful to pass through those gates unscathed. But I put in a lot of work to insure this doesn’t happen. And you don’t even pat people down??? You’re letting every Tom, Dick and Harry in with who knows what. Pat downs are necessary to eliminate the low hanging fruit who would not be consuming what they’re carrying responsibly. I took it as a personal offense at how lax the security was.

The first show we caught was of Montreal. Long time fan, and highly aware of how fun their shows are, I thoroughly enjoyed them. Despite the fact that they played from 2-3pm, outside whilst overcast. Anyone vaguely familiar with this band (and the set they were playing(2007’s Hissing Fauna, You Are the Destroyer)) knows that they should be playing either at night time (if outside) or move them inside the venue to a dark, industrial setting with lights and sounds randomly and with pattern coalescing around the stage.

Festival promoters dropped the ball here. They were followed by Perfume Genius, who also did an incredible job, and Pussy Riot (who may have put on the best set of the day).

You might need flashlights at Day 4 Night

Pretty Lights was next and this is where it all started to fall apart. His shows are always high energy, entire crowd moving and vibing, are unique but he ALWAYS PLAYS THE HITS. He proceeded to take the stage (without the Analog Future Band(the first bad sign)) and basically played Simon. You remember Simon. The game for children with four different colored lights with corresponding sounds that plays and has you emulate a pattern.

That was this set. No energy, no hits, crowd completely deflated and 70% left the set a half hour. The depression was compounded because at the beginning of 2017, PL announced new music incoming (his first since 2013’s A Color Map of the Sun). In lieu of an album, he promised to tour more this year, and release the “album” in pieces at different festival sets, recording it all live then mailing out USB drives containing the live “flips” for fans to upload and share with the world. We didn’t get any of that. We got a five year old playing Simon for an hour in the freezing cold.

Needless to say, that set left me in quite the funk. I decided to head over to the Green stage to check out Cardi B. One of the hottest rappers in the game with a huge hit. That’s gotta be lit right? She took the stage, performed two songs over ten minutes, then announced, “Houston, I love you but it’s cold so I’m gonna cut this short.” She then walked off the stage and her set was over. She also started late and had her DJ just playing music for over a half hour. My respect for her is below zero after this. It was unacceptable. Oh, and Cardi, aren’t you from New York City? I’m no meteorologist but I think it’s pretty safe to assume if you live in NYC, you should be able to white knuckle a little Texas “winter.”

It was a huge crowd at Day 4 Night…

That beginning mired Day for Night from the beginning. The weather started to roll in, and a downpour of rain was mixed with freezing wind.

Now, the venue had two stages outside and two inside. Your biggest act is Nine Inch Nails, they could literally redeem this entire eff up of a day, if you only let Trent show you the way.

Cancel or reschedule the mid card acts and move NIN to one of the indoor stages.

Problem solved. Nope. They have NIN play in a downpour then force them offstage after an hour (after already cutting their set by a half hour). In my opinion this is where it all fell apart. NIN was forced off around 9 pm. The next big set wasn’t until 12:20 am when Jamie XX would perform.

Over three hours is wayyyy too long to have a bunch of people who’ve been drinking and god knows what else in the hopes to burn off that steam dancing and enjoying music. Instead, all that pent up energy started to manifest. People were downright rude, ugly and mean near the end of the night.

If you’ve never seen a bunch of hippies the angriest they’ve ever been, you should have observed this.

While the music portion of D4N left me non-plussed, the art portion had my attention from the start. The first installation that caught my eye was what I deemed, the electric forest. It was the first installation in view when you trek up to the second floor via ONE staircase. It was a large, sparse area dotted with columns throughout its 50×50 feet or so of space. These columns were all adorned with LED strands on all four sides and synced to flash, light up, shut off and a number of other effects. This was synced with loud, pulsating sounds. Think of the sound a lightsaber makes, then imagine Darth Vader trancing out to some solid house techno, and that’s about how it felt to be in there. It was breathtaking and humbling and, even if you were there alone, you’ve never felt more connected to everything around you.

Another highlight was the red laser tent. While some were content to just sit under the tent and be at peace, my festigang and I conspired to steal everyone’s light for ourselves. And we did. Here’s a pic so you know it’s real.

Other highlights include a wall length monitor displaying the tide on a beach. The tide would flow slower or faster depending where you were standing, and you could even blast visible gusts of wind by lifting your arms and pushing air into the tide.

A visual display using data from hurricane Harvey to create its multiple patterns and movements drew crowds but wasn’t much for making you think.

Unfortunately, the art didn’t bat a thousand either. One piece in particular, which I won’t name out of respect to the artist, seemed very well meaning and was visually impressive.

However, the artist in question wasn’t up to code on his marine biology and the 4 tanks holding assorted crabs lacked a source to pump oxygen in, and the crabs, by the time we saw them, had all perished. You may be able to fool a bunch of hippies, college age degenerates and people from around the country, but you ain’t fooling three Cajuns from Louisiana (well, technically 2, but the Baja native has lived in Nola for 10+ years now(so I’d say he’s nationalized)).

I had to constantly remind myself during this review that this is still a very young festival, in only their third year. Considering that, they handled the bumps and bruises ably. And, honestly, I wouldn’t be so critical….if they hadn’t absolutely knocked it out of the park last year (with an objectively weaker lineup). That first year spoiled me.

I bragged on it and lauded it to my friends as what a perfect festival should be.

D4N 2016 was a 7/7 on a 5/7 scale. It went above and beyond what I thought was possible for a festival to achieve. Having said that, I can’t award them for past performance and can only evaluate them on the efforts that they put forth this year and for that, I give them a 2.73/7. A middling experience billed as the time of your life.

I would recommend holding out on tickets until at least a month before next year. Don’t reward them for mediocrity.

I’m The Astonishing Chase Huval of The Astonishing Tales Digital Magazine and I Approve This Message.

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Live By Night: Chase Huval’s Review Of Houston’s Famed Day For Night 2017 Concert Festival If You've Never Been to D4N, Day For Night In Houston, Maybe You've Missed Out... Or Maybe Not, According To The Astonishing Mr.

[usnewsaggregator-blog]

What's Dangerous About Donald Trump's Foreign Policy?

New Post has been published on https://usnewsaggregator.com/whats-dangerous-about-donald-trumps-foreign-policy/

What's Dangerous About Donald Trump's Foreign Policy?

When critics argue that Donald Trump is an exceptionally reckless commander in chief, they tend to highlight how the American president deviates from the norm.

By issuing “diplomatic pronouncements” on Twitter and pronouncing actual diplomats irrelevant, Hillary Clinton says, Trump poses “a clear and present danger to our country and to the world.” Trump, the Republican Senator Bob Corker warns, acts “like he’s on a reality show” and “doesn’t realize that we could be heading towards World War III with the kinds of comments that he’s making” about foreign policy, which should be left “to the professionals.” “We are concerned that the president of the United States is so unstable, is so volatile, has a decision-making process that is so quixotic, that he might order a nuclear-weapons strike [against North Korea] that is wildly out of step with U.S. national-security interests,” Corker’s Democratic colleague Chris Murphy recently cautioned during a Senate hearing. In the same hearing, a former Defense Department official testified that he “would be very worried about a miscalculation based on the continuing use of [Trump’s] Twitter account with regard to North Korea.”

Trump, Murphy told me not long ago, “has shown an enthusiasm for military force against North Korea in his Twitter account that is extraordinary.”

But if danger is crudely measured by how many people die in military conflicts as the result of a president’s policies, the dangers posed by Trump’s atypical behavior remain hypothetical at the moment. Leaving aside his genuinely unprecedented moves in trade and diplomacy, the wars that Trump is currently commanding were initiated by his predecessors. He has not (yet) started new conflicts with foes like Iran or North Korea or radically transformed existing ones. When it comes to the real use of military force, rather than the tweeted kind, Trump has acted rather like a “normal” U.S. president—only more so, as he’s escalated some conflicts he inherited. And yet it’s his abnormal actions, which so far haven’t killed anyone, that seem to scare his detractors most.

This intense focus on the discontinuities in Trump’s handling of foreign policy has eclipsed debate over the continuities; ruptures in style often obscure the enduring substance of problematic policies. When, for instance, four U.S. special-operations soldiers were killed in an ambush in Niger, the political circus surrounding Trump’s calls to the soldiers’ families sucked up most of the attention—not the wisdom of continuing the Obama-era policy of sustaining so many low-grade, far-flung counterterrorism campaigns that Congress can’t keep track of them all.

Likewise, in more aggressively prosecuting the Obama administration’s battle against jihadist groups, the Trump administration has helped uproot ISIS from its last strongholds in Syria and Iraq, crippling the world’s most notorious terrorist group and thereby saving an unknowable number of lives in the United States and around the world. As a consequence, however, civilians and U.S. troops in the region are dying in greater numbers. The political scientist Micah Zenko noted this summer that “in Iraq and Syria, at least 55 percent of all civilians killed by airstrikes since the air war began in August 2014 have died under Mr. Trump’s watch.” (U.S. military officials argue that they have taken great care to conduct the most “precise air campaign in the history of warfare” and that ultimately the best way to protect civilians is to defeat the terrorists holding them hostage.)

When The New York Times recently reported that the U.S.-led coalition’s airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq are inadvertently killing civilians at a much higher rate than the coalition claims, no one went on television or held hearings in Congress to denounce Donald Trump as dangerous. Nor was there much of an outcry in the United States this past summer when civilian casualties mounted as the United States and its allies went on the offensive against the Islamic State, or this past spring when more than 100 civilians perished as a result of a U.S. bombing in the Iraqi city of Mosul. The alarms that sounded after Trump’s threat to unleash “fire and fury” on North Korea have largely stayed silent as innocent Syrians and Iraqis have fallen victim to American firepower.

In August, after Trump announced a plan to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, as Barack Obama and George W. Bush had done before him, Zenko pointed to a jump in Afghanistan of “70 percent more civilian casualties from American airstrikes in the first six months of 2017 than in the first half of 2016.” And he emphasized the risks of “standard operating procedure in Washington,” asserting that Trump was accelerating trends that predated his presidency. “Mr. Trump proudly proclaimed … that ‘we are killing’ terrorists. He has certainly tried. Every country the United States was bombing when he entered office has seen a sharp increase in the number of bombs dropped since Inauguration Day. But he is also killing unacceptably high numbers of civilians,” Zenko wrote. “Rather than committing to block the pathways by which individuals adopt jihadist ideologies and become attracted to terrorist groups, policy makers of both parties try the same military policies over and over.”

Trump, of course, has been in office for less than a year. The consequences of what he’s done thus far haven’t yet come into focus. He is indeed taking big risks with his subversive approach to international affairs. His freewheeling war of words with Kim Jong Un could morph into an actual war on the Korean peninsula, whether by choice or by accident. The ways in which he has enfeebled the State Department, left vacant ambassadorships across Asia and the Middle East, and publicly humiliated his secretary of state—all while stressing America’s military power—could make conflict more likely in the world’s most volatile regions.

But it’s also worth keeping in mind that more traditional approaches to foreign policy carry their own grave hazards. Consider the worst foreign-policy blunders of the two men who preceded Trump.

Bush secured support from the government bureaucracy, the public, and Congress for the invasion of Iraq, which went on to spark a war that has killed an estimated 200,000-plus people to date (mostly civilians), contributed to the emergence of ISIS, and effectively dissolved a country.

Obama obtained the backing of U.S. allies and the UN Security Council for a NATO military mission to protect Libyan civilians from a threatened massacre by Muammar al-Qaddafi during the Arab Spring. Perhaps that move saved countless civilian lives—we don’t know. But we do know what happened next: Qaddafi was killed, the rebels and their NATO partners triumphed, and Libya collapsed in part because the United States and its UN and European allies neglected the land they had helped liberate. Today Libya stands in political and economic ruin, deprived of basic governance, riven by fighting between rival militias, and hospitable to human smugglers and jihadist groups. Obama has cited the lack of international follow-up to the Libya intervention as the worst mistake of his presidency. Privately, as The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg reported, Obama labeled Libya a “shit show.”

If Trump’s aggressive dealings with Kim Jong Un are making war between two nuclear-weapons states significantly more likely, it’s hard to overstate the risks of that approach; millions could die in such a conflict. But in evaluating the Trump administration’s policy on North Korea’s nuclear-weapons program, it’s also important to keep the aggression in perspective. While it’s astounding and unsettling to see the president of the United States call North Korea’s leader “short and fat,” no one died in the making of that tweet. Thae Yong Ho, one of the highest-ranking officials ever to defect from North Korea, recently told me that he thinks past American presidents were too “gentle” with North Korean leaders and Trump’s unpredictable tactics are actually keeping North Korea’s provocations in check. Han Sung Joo, a former South Korean foreign minister and ambassador to the United States, told me that Trump’s tough rhetoric, which he interpreted as the president “expressing his views at the moment” rather than the “result of serious strategic thinking,” has succeeded in pressuring China to do “a little more” to isolate North Korea.

The Trump administration “has handled things in a … measured and firm way that will prevent North Korea from miscalculating,” Han argued. “I do not know if it is wise to push North Korea to the extent they feel they have to react in a non-peaceful way. But North Korea has shown some degree of restraint as far as deeds are concerned, although their rhetoric has also been quite blustery.”

“The most important thing is not to make the situation worse,” he continued. “We can’t expect to resolve the problem in a short period of time. But we have to patiently work on it while all the time maintaining deterrence and defense capabilities, and that the United States [under Trump] has done.”

“So far,” Han noted, “the present U.S. administration hasn’t really made any major mistakes.”

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