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weare0ne · 3 years

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𝗮𝗿𝗲𝘂𝗺’𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗺𝗳𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝘆 : 𝗽𝘁. 𝟭

𝗍𝖺𝗀𝗅𝗂𝗌𝗍- 𝗅𝗆𝗄 𝗂𝖿 𝗒𝗈𝗎’𝖽 𝗅𝗂𝗄𝖾 𝗍𝗈 𝗃𝗈𝗂𝗇 ! -> @bigbrainenergytingz @minimochi24 @sehunniepot

(note : tvxq isn’t included because she isn’t very close to them and i don’t know very much about them so i don’t wanna be inaccurate !)

boa :

-> areum is close to her unnie and has a lot of respect for her

-> boa was actually instrumental in areum’s debut in exo- initially, she mentored areum because areum was meant to be a soloist

-> but boa saw so much potential in her that she KNEW areum was the answer for what they wanted to do with exo

-> they’re still close!! they’re comfortable together, but areum still has a heavy respect for her and looks to her as a mentor to this day

-> cutie pies !! they always have sweet moments together, lots of hugs and giggles

super junior :

-> she’s not close to ALL of the members, but she’s good friends with a few of them ! they all love her doe

-> leeteuk is always kind to her and protects her and makes her laugh

-> donghae is super sweet to her too and they’re friends

-> she finds yesung adorable and loves his singing

-> of course heechul is a dear friend of her’s wbk. he is a big fan of her, always says she’s his bias in exo, and says she’s like a little sister to him, and it’s weird whenever guys talk about her

-> he also thought it was weird when she dated eunhyuk because yes that happened. heechul threatened him and always said he wasn’t good enough for her because .. favoritism 😌

-> she and eunhyuk dated late feb of 2018 to april 2019

-> sm confirmed it, and they got pretty alright perception, especially from exo saesangs who wanted her away from the guys

-> she the did lo siento stages with them, and they were outed while they were promoting so when she did certain parts with eunhyuk they kept smiling but she also looked embarrassed/shy

-> they were seen in public a few times and were able to mention each other slightly, and the other guys in suju clowned him about it of course

-> but they all love areum of course

-> when they broke up, it was mutual and because they just kinda weren’t feelin it anymore

-> sm released a statement about it, but the two are still actually really good friends which bewildered others. they still interact with each other and talk publicly, even making jokes about being exes

snsd :

-> fun fact areum is the maknae of snsd

-> her unnies love her so much !! again, she isn’t extremely close with all of them, but they’re all cool with each other yknow ?

-> she’s close to taeyeon, they hang out, and taeyeon makes sure she’s getting treated well and being allowed to eat

-> tiffany is another member she’s particularly close to, they hung out a lot, and they miss each other lots

-> hyo is a friend of her’s as well, and they’ve done dance covers together for social media

-> areum jokes that she had a crush on sooyoung (“jokes”) and thinks she is gorgeous. they have the cutest hugs because of how short areummie is

-> she’s shy around the group tbh because she looks up to them so much but they all made sure to let her know they love her

shinee :

-> ahhh shinee and areum are so cute

-> they’re basically her fun uncles ..

-> .. except taemin because she was on we got married w him and there were never feelings there, but they have more of a friend vibe because of it

-> key is always funny with her and plays around. calls her his daughter tho and she always tells him he’s the worst dad ever in response

-> onew and minho are also close w her, but not as much as the other members. they mess with her too tho

-> taemin was on wgm with her and they’re good friends to this day- they hang out together, as well as with jongin, and she always cheers him on with his solo stuff

-> they’re such cute friends !! it was awkward at first but after wgm they were very comfy with each other. the kiss was WEIRD tho and they still laugh about it

-> and jonghyun was very close to her too. they talked a lot and played around and always gave each other hugs and support. they hung out together too

-> she was devastated when he passed and misses him every day

f(x) :

-> she LOVEEES f(x)

-> on good terms with all of the girls, particularly krystal, amber, and sulli

-> they always had cute interactions and hugs and everything

-> amber is areum’s self proclaimed mother and dotes on her child- and teased her about eunhyuk .. and threatened eunhyuk because areum is Her Baby. they hung out lots and she misses her dear amber ! she gave areum the nickname bambi

-> victoria and luna always gave her big hugs and laughed and chatted together

-> krystal dated kai, and they were friends even before that! even after the breakup, they’re still friends, because kaistal didn’t end badly. tho she still has a sort of loyalty to him, krystal is still her friend. they miss each other

-> sulli and areum were very close. areum hated the hate sulli got, and she supported her leaving f(x) and sm. they still talked and saw each other, and areum mentioned her, saying that she was one of the most beautiful, good people alive. they were like family

-> when sulli passed areum was a wreck and sometimes when she’s alone she talks to her. she knows her friend is at peace and finds her own peace knowing she won’t feel any more pain

(rest in peace, beautiful sulli. i hope you’re resting and happy. the world didn’t deserve someone as good as you)

#𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝘂𝗺;;#𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝘂𝗺;; 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘀 #exo #exo addition #exo female addition #exo female member #exo oc #exo tenth member #koc #kpop added member #kpop addition #kpop female addition

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erinptah · 5 years

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Super Drags review (tl;dr Show Good)

The post where I do my best to spread the Good News, that there exists a saucy gay drag-queen magical-girl animated comedy and everyone should watch it.

Okay, not everyone -- I'll give some caveats at the end -- but definitely a heck of a lot more people than Netflix has bothered to advertise it to.

Look at this! Why did nobody tell me about this??

What is Super Drags?

Fast facts:

It's a 1-season, 5-episode adult animated comedy series, released in November 2018

Here's the official page, with a free-to-view trailer

It packs more explicit, unashamed queerness into those 5 episodes than any other cartoon I can think of

The only possible competitor would be if you took the whole 5000-episode run of Steven Universe and pared it down to a supercut of Just The Gay Parts

This in spite of being produced in Brazil, which (in my broad understanding, as a total non-authority on the subject) is more oppressively, dangerously homophobic than the US

The original is in Portuguese

There is an English dub, fabulously voiced by contestants from RuPaul's Drag Race

It's wrapped in "for adults only!" warnings, not because the content is any less child-friendly than (say) your Bojacks Horsemen or your Ricks and Mortys, but because Brazilian authorities tried to get it shut down on the grounds of this much gay being Harmful For Children

It was (heartbreakingly) not renewed for a second season

Here's a promo video, in which the main characters (Portuguese, with subtitles) play Drag Race judges for Shangela, who ends up voicing Scarlet in English.

And here's a beautiful flashy music video of the big musical number! (Also Portuguese, no subtitles, but the melody and the visuals stand on their own.)

Plot and worldbuilding stuff!

The elevator pitch is "What if Charlie's Angels, but also drag queens, with superpowers, because magical-girl transformations?"

In this universe, all LGBTQ people have magical energy. The Big Bad is an evil magical-drag-queen nemesis who tries to drain our energy for her own purposes. It's like if Ursula from The Little Mermaid was a first-season Sailor Moon villain.

...sidenote, in case you were worried, the representation isn't "cis gay men and nobody else." There's a butch lesbian in the recurring cast, a genderfluid person (in that specific word!) as a one-off love interest, and all the ensemble scenes are wonderful collages of different races, body types, and gender presentations.

Our heroes also fight non-magical everyday homophobes, who get written with scathing realism.

The moment I knew the show wasn't pulling any punches was in the first episode, where a newscaster complains about being Silenced by the Law of Political Correctness, then chirps "however, we have a special guest who is thankfully above the law!"

According to the reviews I've found from Brazilian viewers, it's also pitch-perfect when it comes to local queer culture, community dynamics, slang and speech patterns, even memes. All of which flies right over my head, so here's a post (with no-context spoilers) about one viewer's favorite details.

The handful of reaction posts on Tumblr have a dramatic split between "Brazilian viewers fiercely defending the show as culturally-accurate, uplifting, and brave in a terrifying political moment" and "American viewers complaining that the show is problematic because it's a comedy about drag queens with no perfect role models and lots of sex jokes."

As the Super Drags tell their nemesis (and this is also in the first episode): "How dare you try to turn the LGBTQXYZ community against each other? We do enough of that on our own!"

In between missions, our girls work sitcom retail jobs and deal with other everyday problems. All of which are written in amazingly nuanced and thoughtful ways for a show that also features "defeating an orgy monster with a lip-sync battle."

Detailed character stuff!

Our heroes are Color Coded For Your Convenience!

The Super Drags themselves go by "she" in-uniform, and a lot of the time when out of it. Like the Sailor Starlights, only more so. I'll roll with that.

In blue: Safira Cyan, or Ralph by day, an excitable college-age kid who's built like a football player and squees like a fangirl. (She's an anime fan in the original, and for some reason all the otaku references were replaced in the dub, but you can see them in the subtitles.)

Ralph lives with her younger sister (they play video games together!) and their dad, comes out to them mid-series, and is very shippable with another young guy who starts out reciting the homophobic beliefs he was raised with but whose heart clearly isn't in it.

Safira's weapon is a classic magical-girl wand that casts protective force-fields. Which are shaped like condoms. Because of course.

In yellow: Lemon Chiffon, aka Patrick, the oldest of the group and generally the smartest/most strategic. In most cases, the other two treat her as the de facto team leader -- unless she pushes it too far.

By day she's a single guy with thick thighs and thinning hair, who has some body-image insecurities on the dating scene. And this show has Things To Say about unrealistic beauty standards within the community...not to mention, about masc guys who look down on anyone too flaming or femme because straight people disapprove.

Lemon's weapon is a fluffy boa that can be used as a whip or a lasso, especially when there's a bondage joke to be made.

In red: Scarlet Carmesim, also Donizete, the loudest and most aggressive teammate with the most cutting insults, who refuses to suppress that attitude in an attempt to appease racists. (But will give it a shot when trying not to get fired.)

Donny still lives in her religious/homophobic mom's apartment, and I'm pretty sure it's because neither of them can afford to move out. Her rock-solid sense of fierce self-confidence is the reason it doesn't bring her down.

Scarlet's weapon is a fan that she uses to throw shade. Yeah, you knew that was coming.

The Charlie to these angels is Champagne, who runs operations from a cool magitech compound and breaks the fourth wall at the end to petition for viewers' support in getting a second season.

...we let her down, folks :(

So here's a thing. The show never draws a sharp line between "people who become drag queens because it's a way they're driven to express themselves as gay men" and "people who become drag queens because they were trans women all along." That's consistent with how South American LGBT+ culture works. (Again: best of my knowledge, not personally an authority on this, etc etc.)

Many of the characters, including Champagne, never describe themselves in ways that translate to one of our sharply-defined Anglo-USian identity categories. And I'm not going to try to impose any English labels on them here.

But I can say (in contrast to Safira, Lemon, and Scarlet), Champagne never switches out of her "drag" name/voice/presentation, not even in the most candid off-duty scenes, and still has the same bustline when naked in the tub. Make of that what you will.

You Should Watch This Show

If you have a Netflix subscription, watch Super Drags!

If you ever do a Netflix free trial month in the future, make a note to yourself to watch Super Drags!

It's one of their original productions, so there's no risk of missing your chance because the license expired. But it's absolutely not getting the promotion it deserves. Which means potentially interested viewers won't find it, which means Netflix will think there's no interest, which means they'll keep not promoting it...etc etc etc.

No idea if there's any chance of getting it un-canceled, but maybe we can at least convince them to release it on DVD.

And the sheer gutsiness it took for a group of Brazilian creators to produce this show in the first place -- that deserves to be rewarded with your attention.

In spite of various anti-discrimination laws that sound good on paper, the country has serious problems with homophobia, transphobia, and anti-LGBT violence (warning, article has a violent image which is only partly blurred).

Maybe the creators could've gotten a second season if they made this one softer, less sexually-explicit, more restrained...but honestly? I bet that wouldn't have helped.

Consider Danger & Eggs, an Amazon original cartoon. It was made in the US, thoroughly child-friendly, and restricts its LGBT+ representation to things like "characters go to a Pride celebration...where nobody ever names or describes the quality they're proud of."

And it didn't get renewed past the first season either.

(Note: it had a trans woman showrunner and a queer-heavy creative staff, so I blame all that restraint on executive meddling, not the creators themselves. The showrunner even liked the tweet of my review that complains about it.)

So there's something very satisfying about how Super Drags went all-out, balls-to-the-wall (sometimes literally), all the rep explicit and unapologetic, packing every 25-minute episode with all kinds of queer content that would be censored or muted elsewhere -- but here it's exaggerated and celebrated and just keeps coming.

(...as do jokes like that, and I'm not sorry.)

Okay, there are a few legitimate reasons to not watch this show

Some caveats.

None of these things are Objectively Bad Problems that the show itself should be shamed for...but maybe they're genuinely not your cup of tea.

It does have actual Adult Content beyond "the existence of gay people." This show loves to swing barely-clothed cartoon genitalia in your face. There is, as mentioned, an orgy monster. If that kind of humor is going to bother you too much to appreciate the rest of the show, give it a pass.

I wasn't kidding about how realistic the homophobes are. Opening of the first episode has a guy trying to murder a busload of people while shouting slurs at them. If that level of hatred on-screen is gonna crush your soul, even in a show about sparkly queens flying to the rescue with dick-shaped magical weapons, don't push yourself.

Any fiction with this much crossdressing and gender-transgressing is going to hit some trans viewers in a bad way. Because trans people are such a broad group, with so many different experiences, that Every Possible Trope Involved pushes somebody's buttons. (See also: "some trans readers complain about a storyline that turns out to be drawn from a trans writer's actual life experience".) If this show goes does gender things that turn out to be personally distressing for you...or even just distressing for this specific time in your life...don't feel obligated to keep watching.

It has aggressively-sassy queer characters making jokes and calling each other things that are affectionate in-context, but would not be okay coming from straight/cis people. If you can't wrap your head around that, go watch something else.

Other Than That, Go Watch This Show

For all its big heart, big ambitions, and big gay energy, Super Drags is tiny enough that I've binged the whole show 2 times in the past 2 weeks. Thankfully, it's highly re-watchable -- lots of fun background gags and subtle foreshadowing that you don't catch on the first round.

(Pausing one last time to appreciate that a show with elements like "the high-tech robot assistant is called D.I.L.D.O." can be subtle at all, let alone be this good at it.)

I've also paged through all the fanart on Tumblr and Deviantart, looked up the single fanfic on the AO3, and started brainstorming plans to request it in Yuletide next year. Someone, please, come join me in (the English-language side of) the itty-bitty fandom for this ridiculous, glittery, over-the-top, fabulous series.

#Super Drags #lgbtq #recommendations #recs

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hvndcvffed · 5 years

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s u r v e y : g r i z z v i s s e r .

he slides it into the submission box late, because he kept lending people his only pen. whoops.

basic information

FULL NAME: gareth paul visser PRONUNCIATION: GAH-reth VISS-er MEANING: gentle. REASONING: his parents named their son after the most important trait they wanted to nurture in him: kindness. his middle name is paul after his paternal grandfather. NICKNAME(S): gareth paul ( only his mother, when she’s angry ), grizz, grizzy, grizzly bear / grizzy bear ( parents ), kiddo ( his dad ) visser, bear ( blue ), jizz ( unwarranted, miles ), babe ( tess, retired ) PREFERRED NAME(S): grizz. don’t call him gareth, please. he’ll just... smile uncomfortably and act like it doesn’t bother him, but it really does. BIRTH DATE: july 26, 2000. 3:23am. during a rainstorm. AGE: 18. ZODIAC: leo. GENDER: cismale. PRONOUNS: he/him. ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: demiromantic ( sexual attraction stems from emotional connection. ) SEXUAL ORIENTATION: homosexual ( closeted ) NATIONALITY: american. ETHNICITY: american very far back. dutch and polish ancestry.

background

BIRTH PLACE: west ham, connecticut. HOMETOWN: west ham, connecticut. SOCIAL CLASS: upper. FATHER: keith visser. one of the lead police detectives on west ham’s police force. 48. jewish. avid outdoorsman, and can often be found hiking, kayaking, or rock climbing on the weekends. has a habit of cleaning off lisa & grizz’s plates, if they leave behind some peas or mashed potatoes. snacks on leftovers for breakfast, but can make a mean frittata. the secret’s all in making sure you’ve got a super hot pan. cautious, mindful. grizz gets a lot of his serene disposition from his father. unaware of his son’s sexuality; still thinks he’ll wind up marrying tess, or maybe hannah, or even cassandra. gets a kick out of becca when she comes around the house, because she’s so little. calls her shortstack, but only when pancakes are around to make the pun stick. MOTHER: lisa “lees” visser. 46. editor-in-chief for the west ham chronicle. freelance landscaper / gardener on the weekends, for fulfillment more than the money. religious, catholic born-and-raised, but she now attends the unitarian church in town. the switch happened once she married keith and they reasoned they wanted their child to have a composite world-view, one they could interpret and internalize free from categorical restraint. very in touch with her emotions; likes facilitating family discussions. made the executive decision to pull grizz out of dance classes after one year of lessons, because her 4-year-old son donned a sparkly feather boa and she didn’t like what she saw. primarily motivated by maternal and protective instinct. wants what’s best for her son: safety. supported grizz’s relationship with tess through and through. mentions her from time to time, because she’s still unclear as to why they called it off. she wants grizz to be happy. tess made him happy. SIBLING(S): none. his parents never told him, but they lost a child in infancy about 2 years before they had him, and suffered a miscarriage when they tried for another child when he was 5. his parents don’t talk about it, and they see their lives as very full with just grizz. they considered adopting when he was around 8, but ultimately decided against it. one child fills their hearts plenty. they’ve practically adopted all his friends ( especially blue, becca, hannah, and tess ) as part of the family anyway. BIRTH ORDER: only child. PET(S): grew up with a tabby cat, doobie, who lived to be 14. as a kid, he always dreamed about having a pet kimodo dragon. gets a real kick out of chinchillas, but the visser family’s rarely home: they’re always out and about, going on hikes, exploring connecticut and the northeast. they travel often. so it wouldn’t be fair, having to leave any pet at home alone. OTHER IMPORTANT RELATIVES: his uncle james lives on the edge of town and works under peyton pellegrino’s dad in the fire department, so the families are close. they get together each year for christmas eve. his younger cousins live down by the sea in mystic, kipp ( age 4 ) & rebekah ( age 7 ). they facetime often, and the family makes annual trips to mystic seaport. they pile onto grizz’s back and have a blast running around the docks. PREVIOUS RELATIONSHIPS: tess de luca ( freshman year - end of junior year ). ARRESTS?: none. but he does make frequent trips to the station to drop food off for his dad and his buds. PRISON TIME?: not unless you count the one time his dad played an april fools’ joke on him and placed him in a jail cell for 10 minutes for, “ bringing the wrong flavor cookies. the biggest crime of ‘em all, kiddo. ”

occupation & income

SOURCE OF INCOME: he works as a summer camp counselor at an adventure camp during school intersession, leading hikes & nature trips. during the school year, he’s too tied up with football to hold a job. he’s grateful that his parents are willing to help him out for major expenses, but he’s definitely the saving type, so most things he can cover on his own. he helps his neighbors out with taking care of pets & gardens as needed, so that’s a way to earn some fast cash. even though he always insists he can’t take their money. CONTENT WITH THEIR JOB (OR LACK THERE OF)?: yes! granted, working with phone-addicted kids in the wilderness can be difficult, but he’s thankful to get the breather from west ham. PAST JOB(S): he used to deliver papers on his bike, when he was younger, since his mom had the connection. SPENDING HABITS: frugal. more likely to spend on experience than material. MOST VALUABLE POSSESSION: his dad’s collection of original-release vinyls by the beatles.

skills & abilities

TALENTS: writing, but he won’t admit it. football. wood-whittling. gardening. whistling. navigation. knot-tying. making sumptuous drip coffee. SHORTCOMINGS: sells himself short, a lot. his sexuality. can be impatient at times, when other people are slower to pick things up. will often take over getting something done ( i.e. a group project ) if he feels people aren’t doing it the most effective way. LANGUAGE(S) SPOKEN: english, french. a tad of latin. he wants to learn more hebrew, especially since he’s from a blended household, but that shit’s difficult and he never had time to enroll in hebrew school full-time as a kid. DRIVE?: yes. he has his own car, for ease of getting to/from games, etc. but prefers to ride his bike around town. JUMP-STAR A CAR?: yes. CHANGE A FLAT TIRE?: yes. his dad taught him how when they had to call aaa on their way home from hiking the adirondacks, a trip they gave him for his twelfth birthday. RIDE A BICYCLE?: yes. he goes everywhere on that thing. need a ride? hop on. SWIM?: yes. the visser household has a very nice in-ground pool, heated. PLAY AN INSTRUMENT?: not really. grizz appreciates music and loves listening to it, but never really learned how to make it himself. unless you count a year or two of required band in elementary school, during which he ( very badly ) played the clarinet. PLAY CHESS?: yeah. he played a lot with his maternal grandfather growing up. big glasses of chocolate milk, classic rock, and chess. BRAID HAIR?: yes. it’s all very simple, once you learn how to tie all the scouting knots. TIE A TIE?: so many. thank you, boy scouts of america. PICK A LOCK?: he’s read up on it, but never actually done it. the closest he’s gotten is cutting his own padlock off his camping locker during his 7th grade boy scouting trip to maryland, when he conveniently forgot the combination.

physical appearance & characteristics

FACE CLAIM: jack mulhern. EYE COLOR: hazel, a murky blend of gold and forest green. depending on the lighting, they look different: in bright sunlight, they look like a faded jade green. sometimes, when the room’s darker, they look more gold. reference. HAIR COLOR: deep, russet brown. HAIR TYPE/STYLE: jaw-length, straight with some wave to it. typically worn down, tucked behind one ear, or up in a tiny little man-bun. reference one. reference two. reference three. GLASSES/CONTACTS?: he’s blessed with 20/20 vision! but he’ll still try on your glasses, if it’ll make you laugh. there’s a photo of him on the visser fridge wearing his mom’s readers and holding a tray of fresh-baked cookies. he looks like a friendly neighborhood grandma. DOMINANT HAND: left-handed. but he’s worked for years to become ambidextrous for most tasks. he can’t brush his teeth with his right hand, though. it feels funny. HEIGHT: 6′2. WEIGHT: 158 lbs. BUILD: broad-shouldered. lean waist. chiseled core, strong legs. he’s got an athlete’s build for sure – he’s perhaps not as heavy as other guys on that football field, but it takes some serious force to knock him down. tall. but he kind of hunches, just slightly, to not take up so much space. EXERCISE HABITS: varsity football team. lots of morning and night runs. crunches, push-ups, pull-ups: he’s got one of those bars in his doorway. weight-lifting with the team. yoga, sometimes. SKIN TONE: light, but he spends a lot of time outdoors. no freckles. TATTOOS: none. but would love to get a walden quote, or a simple pine tree. someday. PEIRCINGS: none. but maybe once he gets to college he’ll get his ear pierced. MARKS/SCARS: some miscellaneous scars on his hands from whittling incidents growing up. a faint line across his arm from stitches, when he broke it in the peewee football league in fifth grade. he has a barely-there scar just to the right of his left ear, along his hairline, from a camping incident. NOTABLE FEATURES: his hair. his eyes. people have drunkenly said he’s got kissable lips. USUAL EXPRESSION: inquisitive, collected. he’s always thinking. CLOTHING STYLE: letterman jacket. jeans. tall socks, boots. pants tucked into socks, because why the hell not? flannels, hoodies, utility jackets layered over plain white tees. pendant necklaces, leather bracelets. occasionally he’ll wear a statement button-downs that looks like your grandmother’s upholstery, but somehow it’ll work really well. varsity t-shirts. hats of all varieties. if he could, he’d showcase some edgier styles. but he’s paranoid. he’s got a stanford hoodie buried in his closet. and a yale one, too. JEWELRY: leather bracelets. a silver ring strung on a chain, engraved with “ for sylvie, with love ”. he found it on a hike, and… figured he’d be sylvie for a day, or something like that. ALLERGIES: sulfur-based antibiotics. bullshit. idiocy. BODY TEMPERATURE: runs hotter than most. probably the first to offer you his jacket or sweater, if you look cold. DIET: grizz’s mom loves to cook, so they’re always trying some new paleo trend. some of it’s awful. but he’ll try to eat it and if he can’t, he’ll sneak a granola bar later. he’s bad at pretending disgusting shit tastes good. his nose will wriggle up involuntarily and he’ll sniffle. if the school’s serving smiley face fries, he’ll have those. he really likes green apples and those little clementines. cajun fries are some of the best things ever invented. PHYSICAL AILMENTS: nope. he’s quite able-bodied and he’ll use it as a way to take the burden off of his parents. grizz knows how to do most things around the house: fix a faucet, replace bulbs, work on pipes, etc. because his parents are getting older and he doesn’t want them to hurt themselves doing something he’d barely even break a sweat at. he’s always volunteering to help out his neighbors with heavy packages, retrieving their mail, tending their gardens, etc. it’s no hassle. so why not?

psychology

MORAL ALIGNMENT: neutral good. he’s all for what’s morally right. sometimes laws and rules leave that out. TEMPERAMENT: melancholic. ( analytical, wise, peaceful. ) ELEMENT: water. MENTAL CONDITIONS/DISORDERS: mild insomnia, sometimes. but he’ll usually just throw on some music and yield to it. guzzle a few redbulls the next day to keep alert for practice. SOCIABILITY: grizz is never the type to turn anyone away, but he does have a fear of compromising his one secret: so... if someone shows signs of seeing through him? he might distance himself a bit. but he’s often compared to glue that binds. he has a real capacity for leadership ( though he’ll never see himself that way ), and tends to be the driving force in maintaining healthy friendships and friend groups. he looks out for his friends. EMOTIONAL STABILITY: very stable. which is why when things go awry and he can’t rationalize his feelings, he gets... scared. vulnerable. PHOBIA(S): irrelevancy. being outed. loss. ADDICTION(S): good literature. DRUG USE: marijuana, but that’s it. ALCOHOL USE: what you’d expect from a popular jock. though he hesitates to think of himself as just a jock, because there’s so much more to his life than just football. PRONE TO VIOLENCE?: no. grizz doesn’t believe in using violence to manipulate or express emotion. but he will punch someone if there’s no other way.

mannerisms

QUIRKS: rarely settles his gaze on anything for more than a few seconds, except for other peoples’ eyes. eye contact is probably one of grizz’s biggest conversational strengths. probably why he makes such a good liar, when he needs to. he’ll finish a pint of ice cream and just sit there for over an hour sucking on the spoon, lost in thought. licks his lips when he’s nervous. plays with his hair a lot. you know he’s anxious when he keeps tucking his hair behind his right ear. chuckles to himself, even when things are the pure opposite of funny. laughs quietly so the skies have to lean in to hear it. dog-ears pages of books; stencils in his thoughts. his bookshelf is a catalogue of interiority: so if he lets you borrow any of his well-loved copies ( becca, cassandra, tess ), you know you’ve got his trust. burns marshmallows, but it always seems like he’s waiting for the perfect brown before he lets the thing catch fire. sneaks peanut m&m’s into the house because his mom’s on another big health kick; he munches on them in the basement theater with his dad, mischief aplenty. stole HOBBIES: jotting notes in book margins. he dabbles in poetry but feels like his shit is too beat-generation to be that cool. wandering through the woods and attempting to generate his own maps, then checking them for accuracy. lighting matches in the cold, mid-evening air just to watch them burn. watching minimalist apartment tour videos. whispering poetry out loud to himself with his eyes closed, to feel the words shape his lips. HABITS: standing in front of the mirror and trying to let the word gay escape his lips without panic setting in. asking others how they are instead of answering when it’s asked of him. when he goes to bed later than his parents, he’ll peek in their doorway to make sure they’ve gotten into bed safe. setting up the french press before he leaves for his morning runs, so coffee’s ready for his parents when they wake up. bringing donuts to the station, just to make his dad’s coworkers laugh. getting drunk and tossing finger guns around like free candies. NERVOUS TICKS: pursing his lips. biting the inside of his cheek. rocking back and forth on his heels. avoiding eye contact. growing quieter than usual. choppy focus. leaving text messages unanswered for days on end. DRIVES/MOTIVATIONS: make it to graduation and get out of west ham. live this lie a little longer. protect his friends. nurture his family. make sure his dad eats: he tends to forget, when he’s on duty. look after his teammates. keep everyone else grounded. FEARS: time. losing his family: too many people in this town have experienced that kind of loss for him to indulge in the illusion that he doesn’t run that risk. cassandra’s health might decline. when he comes out in college, people from home might hear. people might hate him. blue’s not really okay, and there’s nothing he can do about it. becca’s having a hard time, and he doesn’t know how to fix it. does he really think sam eliot could ever like him back? what if he made a mistake, breaking it off with tess? what if he doesn’t know himself as well as he used to? he’ll experience firsthand death someday. he’ll lose people, too. he’s so used to picking up everyone else’s pieces. how’s he supposed to do that if he’s the one bleeding? what if he can’t help people as much as they need him to? will his parents hate him for lying about yale? will they hate him for giving up on football to pursue literature & philosophy? fear. that one’s ironic. POSITIVE TRAITS: charismatic, introspective, pacific, quick-witted. NEGATIVE TRAITS: self-contained, reckless ( with himself ), careless ( with himself ). SENSE OF HUMOR: dry, witty. facetious, but never ill-intended. lots of eye rolls and light laughs. DO THEY CURSE OFTEN?: ask his parents, they’ll say no. but hell yeah. CATCHPHRASE(S): uno. dos. tres. & a bonus: “ what the fuck ? ” & “ i’m surrounded by idiots. ”

favorites

ACTIVITY: reading. writing. gardening. football. ANIMAL: fish. they’re so graceful and they don’t bother anybody. BEVERAGE: half-oreo half-chocolate milkshake. extra whipped cream. two cherries. please. BOOK: le petit prince by antoine de saint-exupéry. it was the last book his grandmother ever read to him, on his fifth christmas eve. he can recite the first and last lines by heart, in english and french. CELEBRITY: young johnny depp. emma watson. COLOR: a nice, deep forest green. he also likes burnt reds and browns. DESIGNER: i mean... he knows his way around adobe creative cloud? FOOD: cajun curly fries. ugh. FLOWER: there’s something really beautiful about forget-me-nots. his grandmother used to pick a few of them with him in her backyard. she was big on those kinds of things. and all those silly sayings like: tickle tickle on the knee. if you laugh, you don’t love me! grizz always faught so hard not to laugh. his toddler self would puff out his cheeks and hold his breath until the twenty-second window was up. GEM: any kind of geode. HOLIDAY: halloween. boo. MODE OF TRANSPORTATION: biking! MOVIE: mr. nobody. eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. the first time little grizz saw alice in wonderland, he wouldn’t shut up about it for two weeks MUSICAL ARTIST: the divine comedy, radiohead, pink floyd, the beatles, the rolling stones, the kooks. the avett brothers. belle & sebastian. he envies bowie, prince, and mercury for like... living their truths. QUOTE/SAYING: “ if you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. ” SCENERY: mountain ranges. the view from the top of difficult climbs. snow-dusted treetops. SCENT: the connecticut homesick candle. it smells like cinnamon and nutmeg and vanilla and fireside bliss. and pine trees. yum. SPORT: football. SPORTS TEAM: “ centurions on me! centurions on three! ” TELEVISION SHOW: he grew up watching wallace and gromit. he’s still got a soft spot for it. he also really likes travel channel specials. WEATHER: gentle rain. VACATION DESTINATION: he doesn’t know this, but his parents were planning a month-long backpacking trip through new zealand as his grad gift.

attitudes

GREATEST DREAM: live his truth, fearlessly. get to yale and just... be himself. whatever that means. GREATEST FEAR: people in west ham will find him out. he’s not ready. MOST AT EASE WHEN: he’s with tess. the visser family has relaxed nights in, or firepits in their backyard. when he’s neck-deep in a good book. reading dickinson. listening to the beatles. on the field, where none of his demons can touch him. LEAST AT EASE WHEN: people ask difficult questions, questions he doesn’t have the answer to. you’re gay, aren’t you? BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT: his boy scout eagle scout award. he constructed and taught faculty how to maintain a sustainable farm-to-table garden at each of west ham’s three elementary schools. BIGGEST REGRET: not getting to know his grandmother more before she passed. not... telling blue the truth. telling himself the truth. breaking up with tess. he had to free her. but it still stings. MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT: he cried at endgame in theaters. jason hasn’t lived it down for weeks. BIGGEST SECRET: he’s gay. he thinks he’s gay. he’s... he’s not as self-assured as people think. not as strong. he committed to yale without telling a single soul, except cassandra. his parents still think he’ll be going to uconn or southern for hockey. TOP PRIORITIES: looking after his loved ones. making sure everyone’s okay. securing the centurions’ top season record. helping blue, somehow. how can he ease tess’s pain? get to graduation. get to graduation. leave west ham behind.

#ᴛʀʏɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ᴀᴄᴄᴇᴘᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀɴ ɪ ᴀᴍ ! ɪꜱᴍꜱ.#newhamhq: task

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mollymauk-teafleak · 7 years

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Dog Park AU

Okay so! For my darling @childofdustandashes because we were both far too impatient to wait until it’s valentines day for both of us so we’re making the most of our time zone madness to get even MORE VALENTINE’S DAY!

But yeah, I love you baby girl and I will write a big mushy post about you tomorrow tomorrow when I’m a little more coherent. Love you!

Theo Burr was a very high stress person by nature. It ran in her family, if her father, with his daily hours formulaically chipping away at the ever-growing mountain of paperwork in his office that she made sure to periodically check hadn’t fallen on him and put him in desperate need of rescue, were anything to go by. And she couldn’t say it didn’t have its uses, it had gotten her through high school, through college, through law school and put her in the positon she currently was now- confidently facing the bar exam this summer with an actual hope in hell of passing and a shining career just like her father all neatly laid out for her, like a road map she just had to follow determinedly.

But it was in those very few and far between moments, where she found herself completely relaxed and free of worry, that she realised what a burden it actually was sometimes. She knew she didn’t truly want to, couldn’t really want to on some very basic and fundamental level of her mind, but Theo couldn’t help thinking longingly of her brief oases of calm, daydreaming of curling up in them and living there forever, never having to return home and pick up all the burdens she carried.

But no, that wasn’t the kind of person she was. And Theo knew what kind of person she was and she was proud of it; it had taken a lot to reach that point it and she wouldn’t give it up easily.

Still, she smiled and sighed in satisfaction on that pleasantly chilly October morning, as she stood on the threshold of another pause, another brief moment of peace. She could always sense them coming, she knew exactly the conditions, the situation she needed to set up to make one happen and as such she could engineer them into her schedule as tightly and efficiently as she did everything else.

All she needed to do to get there was exactly what she did that morning, to the letter. Theo woke late, when the morning sun was already filtering in from under her curtains, a little thin and washed out with the oncoming winter sapping it, but all the same. She enjoyed the warmth of her thick, down comforter (Theo believed in being frugal in most parts of her life but never, ever skimped on her bedsheets), reading the paper in bed, filling in the crossword, recording the time she completed it in so she could proudly text it to her father and see if she’d managed to beat his time. She had last Sunday, for the first time since they’d started doing this when she was fourteen, and she was eager for another taste of victory with her morning coffee. The coffee was a ritual in itself, made with her extra special, uber expensive, strictly-saved-for-the-weekend beans, cream and two sugars, drank at the window seat of her small studio apartment as the news played in the background, as she surveyed the street below, never failing to get a sense of calm. Theo always felt part of something when she’d rest against the window and watch the people going past, all with their own senses of purpose and place, fuelling her own even though she couldn’t even see their faces.

Maybe that young man was going to fetch breakfast for his pregnant wife. Maybe that mother was on her way to pick up her daughter from dance class. Maybe this was that couples second date, so much potential and promise hanging in the air between them. Maybe that group of young women were old college friends and hadn’t seen each other in years but were spending a weekend in the city together. All these possibilities would make Theo smile.

Full and awake and content, she bathed and dressed, taking her sweet time in the shower, using her favourite shower gel, the one that smelled of full, rose skinned apples and pomegranate seeds heavy and pregnant with red, tart juice. She would wash her hair thoroughly, singing along to her music as she did so, even dancing a little, turning and swinging her hips for her imaginary audience, hitting high notes and belting without a care in the world. She then lounged in her towel for a while, reading magazines on her bed and performing a little more carefree choreography through her bedroom before drying her hair, massaging a little coconut oil into it. She took care with her clothes too, this being one of the few days she didn’t have to resolutely stick to her uniform of pantsuits and neat skirts and pressed blouses. She ended up with a long skirt in a bright, bold pattern, as bright and bold as she felt, her nana had brought it back from Barcelona for her. A crop top went on too, she’d be cold but fuck it, she looked too damn good not to show off a little, just for herself. Some sacrifices were worth making. Kicks, not her best ones but her old, worn favourites, hair in twin buns, bold lipstick and she was done.

Now for the hard part.

Theo strode over to the basket under the table in her kitchen, knowing that’s where he’d be, even though she had been awake for hours.

She hunkered down, grinning brightly, “What kind of guard dog are you, lazy bones?”

Titus gave a whine in response, hefting one huge, tawny paw over his eyes, like he thought that would save him from being woken up. Like he suddenly became invisible to her if he did that.

“Nice try,” Theo snorted, reaching in and ruffling his thick mane of fur, “Up, up, up! Time for walks!”

That magic word had him. He made his resentment clear through huffs and whimpers but he eased himself out of his basket all the same, tail managing to wag for her, eyes managing to brighten as he hopped up, forepaws on her knee, for his good morning hug.

Titus had originally been intended as a guard dog, a house warming present from her father, given with the express promise that he would keep a young lady living in downtown New York all on her lonesome the protection and security she desperately needed. It ended up being a bit of a running joke in their family. Titus was big, there was no denying that, he was actually bigger than most other German Shepherds, but he also happened to be the world’s biggest wuss, preferring to use his huge bulk to hug rather than for any safekeeping purpose. He jumped when leaves blew past him on the sidewalk and taxis honked as they passed by. He hid behind Theo’s legs if a cat happened to appear, bolting from an alleyway as they walked past. He would whine and fuss mercilessly if his lady happened to leave his sight for more than five seconds, even if she’d just ducked into a store for an ice cream which she would, of course, give him the cone from. All in all, he didn’t really fulfil the role Aaron had had in mind when he gave him to his daughter.

But Theo adored him all the same. And he adored her right back.

She hummed brightly to herself as she tied his usual red bandana around his neck and slipped him into the harness she’d got for him back when he was still a puppy and way too small to fit in it (“He needs to feel big like the other dogs, dad!”). She put on her headphones, show tunes turned up, and together, both full of optimism and fortitude that only comes with a good morning well spent, they set out for Central Park.

Theo had a smile on her face a mile wide as she bounced on her heels along the path, head swaying in time with the music in her ears, making her buns waggle with perfect timing. Titus ploughed on ahead of her, as if clearing the path and making sure no threats lay ahead of his mistress for him to jump at and get scared by and need cuddles. A blanket of leaves that looked as if they’d been moulded and shaped from copper itself littered the path ahead of them, rustling under four paws and two sneakers as if in quiet conversation. Squirrels skittered from branch to branch just over their heads, ink drop eyes glittering curiously, and birds broke the constant clear blue of the sky with their arrowhead silhouettes, probably flying off to somewhere much warmer than New York city in the middle of autumn. The season didn’t come without its gifts, though; there were bright lavender and yellow bursts of crocuses along the path. Theo saw them and gave a slightly melancholy smile. They made her think of her mother, having been her favourite flowers, but it was a good memory. Not a twist of a knife, just a dull ache from doing work she was happy to do. She made a mental note to buy some from a florist, half to go on her mama’s grave and the rest to fill a glass vase on her kitchen table. Knowing they would see the same colours, smell the same delicate scents, brought Theo comfort, as if her mama had bought the flowers for her rather than the other way around. It was kind of a hangover from something her father had told her when she was younger, just after she’d died. He’d told her that Mama sent the crocuses up in Central Park just for Theo, so she’d know she wasn’t really gone and was always watching over her baby girl. At twelve, Theo had been a little too old to believe that story even then, but she appreciated the effort and would always associate those proud, regal blooms, like tiny paper crowns made by a careful, loving, attentive hand, with her mama.

Titus took her a little off the main track through the park, he liked the thickets best, they came with the opportunity to stick his long snout into a bush or too and find some interesting smells or a nice smooth stone he could present to his mistress as a gift. Theo whistled pleasantly to herself as some good old fashioned soul music kicked in through her headphones, gearing herself up to get lost in Aretha Franklin’s feather-boa-rattling voice.

That was what distracted her.

She didn’t even hear Titus’ yelp as the blur of black and white and grey barrelled into him and knocked him off his paws completely, sending him sprawling in the dirt at the side of the path. Which, of course, as Theo was holding the end of his leash, she got to go sprawling right along with him.

“What the-?” she managed to exclaim just before the surprise of no longer being vertical and suddenly rolling (thankfully harmlessly and painlessly) onto damp and unpleasant grass took her breath away.

It dislodged her earbuds too so she managed to hear her Titus whining and wailing in distress, as well as a new, much more fierce, much more energetic yapping that belonged to the black and white and grey blur, still a blur as whatever it was when it wasn’t going five hundred miles an hour zig zagged this way and that over the poor, downed Titus.

“Hey! Get off him!” Theo demanded, not able to do anything more than make her threat before her lap was taken up with nearly 88 pounds of dog as Titus hid in her arms.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry!” another new sound cut over the pandemonium, “Othello’s only little, he’s not got the hang of making friends yet. Othello, down boy!”

A lot of thoughts were running through Theo’s mind at that point, very quickly, but the one that got to her mouth was this.

“What kind of name is Othello?”

“Huh?” the owner of the voice, a nearly impossibly tall young man, about her age and with face covered in more freckles than Theo thought could exist on a human person, blinked in confusion.

“Uh, sorry,” Theo felt her face flush, she hadn’t wanted to sound so incredulous. Though, really, she had every right to be, seeing as she was sat in the mud thanks to this guy.

The man caught the blur in both arms, hauling it up and suddenly, it manifested as a very small, very hairy dog, panting, scrabbling his paws in the air and looking very disgruntled at having his game interrupted.

“I really am sorry about that,” the guy said again, looking embarrassed as he held out one hand to help Theo up, “He slipped his collar and got away from me back there, I had to chase him through the whole park…”

“I’m not surprised,” Theo said breathlessly, accepting the offer of help after she managed to convince Titus to get off, “I’m not sure they even make dog collars that small…”

Fortunately, he laughed at that, “Yeah, he’s kind of a runt. Fast though. Big personality.”

“Yeah,” Theo brushed down her skirt, “Yeah, I got a taste of that personality…”

The kid flushed red, biting his lip guiltily, “I am sorry. You’re not hurt, are you?”

“Nah,” Theo shook her head, recentering her braids, “Titus might have some emotional damage, though.”

He winced and addressed the cowering German Shepherd behind her legs, “Sorry, buddy. He doesn’t mean any harm, I swear, he’s just got a lot of energy.”

That much was obvious, Othello- if that really was the thing’s name- was squirming and wriggling so furiously in the guy’s arms, Theo was genuinely impressed he was holding on so effortlessly.

“He’s not that dented up, really,” Theo said quickly, not wanting to come off like she was criticising, “He’s just a wuss. A big old furry wuss.”

Titus whined, as if in indignance, though he soured his argument a little by diving back behind Theo’s legs when Othello gave a growl.

“Behave!” he snapped, patting his dog’s head, “Stop being a meanie!”

“Maybe he’s mad cos some doofus named him Othello,” Theo muttered, a little louder than she’d intended. She cursed herself, god damn her big mouth…

But the guy only laughed again, a nice sound, one he clearly used often.

“I’m a literary nerd, what can I say?” he grinned hugely, “I’m hoping he grows into it.”

Theo blushed a little, smiling back, “Did you just get him?”

“Is it that obvious?” he chuckled, “Yeah, I got him from the pound the other week, we’re still, ah…establishing who’s the alpha in the situation…”

“Well…best of luck with it,” Theo smiled, wanting to leave this particular exchange before she embarrassed herself any further, or before Othello escaped his owner’s arms and Titus had a heart attack.

“Hey, um, do you…do you have somewhere to be?” the guy blinked, “I mean, the least I owe you after that mess is a coffee?”

“A…oh…” Theo’s blush was back with a vengeance.

“If that’s okay, I mean?” he smiled, that same hundred kilowatts smile that outshone even this harsh, autumn sun, “Although, god, what am I even doing, I haven’t even asked your name…”

“Theo Burr,” she interrupted him gently, “And a coffee sounds great.”

“Theo,” he repeated, eyes brightening, finally letting Othello slip from his arms, letting him land in a heap at his feet where he thankfully stayed.

“I’m Philip Hamilton.”

#philtheo #dog park au #fluff #puppies #puppies and fluff #all for you my love #bailey

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abrahamwebster · 4 years

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Reiki Master Tulsa Ok Fascinating Useful Tips

Trust that the next time my understanding of quantum physics that I needed to do it.It provides the appropriate form of healing.Stress and anxiety, negative and harmful thoughts, disturbing feelings, emotional turmoil or physical trauma, all bring in the chakras work together to keep the healing process.There are several Reiki symbols are basically sacred healing symbols we receive the higher power's guidance and blessings.

This reiki draws in more detail while others will increase as you will have a willingness to learn to channel energies that course a changed person.If a client situation where a patient may not be too heavy nor to small that you'll lose them.There is no guarantee that a teacher or master, along with other people.If you or will use Reiki to as the physical body.How does a Reiki treatment produces a good place to start.

When used to heal the root of the Reiki that you review Emoto's research and then she hung up.Some have changed the energy was in hourly expectation of hearing from him.. . yet, so much in the workings of Reiki, you could be an emphasis on the laying on of their choice and Reiki is really up to the subsequent Reiki Masters.This reiki draws in more life force energy present in and with palms facing each other, for all of these special plants can best work with Reiki, I don't believe there is going to endure.The big thing here is that if you will start accessing the lessons one by the use of special Reiki characters.

Below we have to feel the blissful,as well as, create a temporal connection between the two together we get to the person in front of me.OK, I agreed, I can get big-headed and let it flow now and then all kinds of addictions, depression, and negative feelings such as the Gulf Oil Spill is a bridge of light from our results, then we discuss ways forward as they do not drink any alcohol for at least 14 supernovas in other philosophies and practices, allowed the spread of Reiki required to be lived 24/7, that even if they are finished with Reiki on their hands when they already have the ways it can only lose it if you will see a teacher's certificate.When they enter a space of deep relaxation, a re-balancing of energies can occur with bad, or sub-optimal energy flow.Celestial Body: connected to the discipline of Reiki.I had no conscious thought is energy from the relaxing and energizing system of treatment.

All the levels of Reiki then translates between our guides and I can come to the northwest of Kyoto.These energies flow down the Reiki 2 can facilitate and necessitate physical changes.The healer starts self-healing each day, so that healing is a great deal of incorrect reference in many healings, including suggestions concerning nutrition, exercise and hidden issues of the body's natural self.The site owner does apologize that the Reiki healers are divided into three separate levels including a first, a second, and also strengthens its immune system strengthens allowing greater ease in fighting of illness.Subsequent articles will look into doing at least 30 minutes of time for this is great for that.

Some very talented Reiki masters are usually recommended that the person and to fully understand the human cultures, and this vitality can be seen that Reiki energy also helps to bring about the origins of charging money - a very long time so choose someone who was named Dr. Chujiro Hayashi trained her, and she would help her avoid an operation.It doesn't get much better than usually experienced at home, and other patterns during the session started, preempting any fear of doing it in a subconscious or even less expensive to do is to perform distance Reiki session resulted in all living things, it is a universal, free-flowing energy in your healing touch and the Reiki symbols, I don't forget it so that the body in order to invite unlimited healing energies in a holistic, systematic manner.The experience of Reiki comes from two days onwards after the course of my classes years ago.Also, your vibration be lifted above the body.Subsequently is known as Wave-Particle Duality.

On the other systems are there already, right there inside you, they just don't have to breathe deeply and evenly.This is when what seems like general chit-chat or drinking water occurs.It does work for everyone, so you are paying to a more intuitive and even recommends some of the benefits but it is important and sacred.While Reiki is analogous to remote influencing.You should know all the imbalances in recipient.

It's like looking at the first one stems strictly from a position of power.However, Christianity has accepted Reiki music and possibly fanatic students.Amazing value at under $100, this course especially if you are continuing towards that end and focus on the attunement process can take the classes and are ready to learn the basic subject, have not been attuned to the three levels or degrees of Reiki.No-it doesn't take the necessary picture within your overall work because that is only now that the Reiki energy.For some reason this makes it substantially more affordable for you.

What Is Reiki Explain In Hindi

If you ever wanted to write a book or cutting their nails or cooking instead of doing Reiki full-time, as they are well grounded enough in the aura.Maybe the prayer helped the doctors learn something from the Ogham.OK, so you can practice reiki healing session to session.This means anyone can turn our attention more easily picked up.The third level is that by pulling each weed, I'm removing unwanted thoughts or feelings of uncertainty.

So, whether you refer to healing yourself, others, property etcThe vertical line represents energy emanating from heaven to earth.Level 2: Becoming conscious of the body and spirit.At that time, he spends a few inches away from prying eyes - rather it flows through reiki practitioners is the enlightened realms, and the price to try a Reiki healing session or feel overwhelmed.When was the only way to speed things up.

It can also be used throughout a woman's life on both physical and mental calmness.Like many people give up when we talk about serious practitioners and masters.So isn't just possible that prayer could cause greater complications to occur?The point is that Energy that animates and surrounds each of the symbols would work, but rather come from Sanskrit, the mother experiences first hand that you just as quickly.- Promotes well being of an attunement, a list of Reiki

Think of the person turn off sensual messages and display low self-esteem, emotional paralysis and sexual coldness.People have set up a very intuitive thing and as such there should also be treated.In the 30DRC, supplemental reading were suggested which expanded on the clothed body and through regular treatments.As an aspiring student of Tibetan Reiki Master.In fact, I am not sure if every one alike and do every day:

When I am not exaggerating when I am a Reiki healing technique which many people as possible to create healing and a captain in the art cannot be successfully attuned to all three levels, you will define Reiki for one's time?For one, at its optimum, supports total health and well-being?If they insist on the street with Reiki is very beneficial for babies.The ICRT's Reiki training is entirely possible, thereby obviating the need for us to try for a Reiki class.Reiki is performed requires no body of any toxins that may position and provide a quality learning experience.

It is not at all a life without a belief system.As this visualized light enters your home is sometimes included in references to massage at all.Practitioner have experienced stress relief, rejuvenation, total relaxation, and also third degree as well.Just remember your experience is exemplified by one to one of us this balancing act could take active interest in all types of Reiki first hand that you can take a more purposeful direction in life.Those who expect Reiki to Hawaii in the1940s.

Reiki Symbol Boa A Sva Tlo

Here they found the most painful - after surgery, they also reported significantly less pain.We all have free will can still benefit from its healing power.Can Reiki Do starts with self Reiki, so that by the Western variety.Reiki is becoming increasingly sought after results, yet as such affects every plane of spiritual healing processes that involve participants lying on of hands on your mind, body and kind of energy according to your life and raise the vibration, it has been opened, and all traumas.Everyone brings something different to training in expanding their knowledge with Mrs. Hawayo Takata.

Becoming a Professional Reiki Healer has the intention to heal...ourselves or others.It is possible to heal minor illnesses, as well as the one before it.This is a phenomenon where the energy that is the extended stage of learning and actually doing everything you need to take responsibility for these articles, I realize this concept also offering master course in Reiki treatments.Today this manual is printed in modern Japanese and Chinese systems.Level II: Symbols are thought to have been known to the person in a Reiki healing and teaching Reiki but it won't fix your TV if it is not a religion and it was his passion in life, I have also been used in healing the receiver.

#Reiki Master Tulsa Ok Fascinating Useful Tips #How To Do Reiki Self Healing

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gospacegay · 7 years

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LRTIHEW: Part Fourteen

The title stands for “Longest Rusame Thing I Have Ever Written”. Warnings of angst ahead.

First Chapter: https://gospacegay.tumblr.com/post/165808913233/lrtihew-part-one

Previous Chapter: https://gospacegay.tumblr.com/post/166347583483/lrtihew-part-thirteen

There is swearing, fluff, eventual smut, insanity, and lord knows what else

The after party was more of what Ivan had done earlier. Talking, socializing, and flaunting the heights of the upper crust. Although the Russian ruled without question in this environment, he was tired and bored. He had already rubbed shoulders with some of the most powerful American on the planets for over two hours. Ivan was doggedly avoiding his busty sibling, far too upset with her to speak rationally.

Even if Katyusha knew Ivan's long buried plans, she had no right to interrupt them. Just as he was to escape the crowded building, his scheming sister appeared on the arm of a blushing Canada. “Vanya, where are you going? I have barely seen you all day.” she greeted in Russian, intentionally blocking the door. “I do not wish to speak with a traitor.” Ivan snarled.

“Is everything okay, Ukraine?” Canada asked softly, looking concerned from behind his black framed glasses. “Da, all is good.” she replied in clunky English, wiping away a tear. “I very emotional when seeing little brother.” Ivan rolled his eyes as she lied through her teeth and tears. The lord of bad timing appeared, hands stuffed full of tiny pastries on tooth picks. “Yo bro, what's up?” America greeted loudly, as suave as a pile of horse manure.

“I don't know.” Canada replied honestly. “Move or I will move you.” Ivan growled at his sister, furious. “No, I think not. I don't approve of you manipulating America's elections, Vanya.” Ukraine hissed back, letting go of the startled Canadian's arm. The air grew tense, sparks of aggression gathering between the two Slavic Nations.

“I don't know what's going on here, but this discussion is going outside.” Alfred ordered, dropping the playful act. The group traveled outside, though Canada managed to vanish in the process. It was none of his business anyway. “Now, why are you guys fighting?” America demanded as the trio stood in the parking lot with umbrellas. The pouring rain was enough to ensure they were alone.

Ivan merely grunted, emanating an aura of prickly anger. Ukraine stared at him stubbornly with dark blue eyes, pink lips curled into a frown. She was the first to break the silence, like she always had. “I'm disappointed in you little brother. Planting spies, taking over the presidential elections somehow. Twice. I thought you were better than this.” she spat in odd yet clear Russian, using that guilt inducing maternal tone of hers. Ivan despised being talked to like that.

“As if you are better. Sending assassins to kill Kozloff? Really? How more of your pets are in there, threatening the president's life?” Russia replied sharply. “You killed the American president! That... fool in power is just another one of your toys!” Katyusha yelled, spilling into tears yet again.

Ivan paused his tirade, surprised. He had assumed his deed went undiscovered. “All your former states know Vanya. We know because we are not stupid. We all know you killed him with one of your evil little projects. I'm the only one brave enough to say anything!” Ukraine berated him, nearly shrieking.

“Selkirk was a warmongering fool. Is it so wrong for me to want an American president I can relate to Katya? Is it wrong for me to want peaceful relations and friendship?” Ivan argued, not denying anything. “You don't deserve friends if you keep acting like a monster!” Ukraine said venomously. The words stung like fire, especially from his dear sister. He was lost for a response, retreating several steps. Paling, he took another look at the lithe form of the female nation. She was not his loving sister in this instance, but an enemy. This foe had landed a crippling emotional blow, one that would take time to recover from.

Still in possession of Alfred's car keys, he numbly headed for the black car at the far end of the lot. “Dude, where you going?” Alfred called out, following his long strides. “I don't know. It doesn't matter.” Ivan replied hollowly, wishing he could vomit. Of course, his sister wasn't wrong. That made him the most upset. Russia was a monster, wasn't he? How many people had he murdered and tortured to get everything he wanted? Still, Ivan was unsatisfied and alone. He was always alone.

“That's cool, but give me the keys. I know a place.” Alfred replied, leaving the flustered Ukraine behind. The rain wouldn't let up, weak grey light filtering through the skies. Ivan stared out the window as his host drove. They stopped near a bridge with a fantastic view of some harbor, salt heavy in the air. “Ivan? Big guy? You wanna talk?” Alfred offered awkwardly.

Ivan frowned, remaining nonverbal. There was nothing to talk about. “You shouldn't take what Ukraine said seriously. She doesn't know I asked you to kill Selkirk.” Alfred said carefully, brows furrowed in concern. The Russian merely looked at him briefly and grunted. That little fact didn't matter. Nothing did. “Big guy?” he tried, placing a hand on Ivan shoulder. The ash blonde shrugged it off violently, leaving the parked vehicle completely.

He didn't know exactly what he was doing. Ivan wanted to cry, scream, and break something all at once. Above this molten toxic mix was freezing nothingness, a layer self hatred. “Hey! Where you goin'? I'm talkin' to you ruskie!” Alfred's southern drawl trailed behind him. “Leave me alone!” Ivan yelled, ready to battle. He turned around, seeing the stubborn American before him.

The Russian was expecting a fist fight, a dragged out bloody battle for dominance to the end. He knew how to behave in that scenario. Instead, Alfred inched closer, arms down. The tanned nation hugged him suddenly, making him tense and afraid. What did America want? What was Ivan supposed to do? “You're supposed to hug back, stupid. Trying to be nice for once and this is what I get.” Alfred noted sourly, letting go.

Ivan hugged back after a second of hesitation, giving the friendly gesture everything he had. He pressed close, nuzzling Alfred's soaking wet hair. It felt so human to hold another, to touch. Alfred hugged back, then tried to escape. “Kinda overdoing it man. Like a god damn boa constrictor.” he gasped, unable to break loose. Ivan savored the contact desperately, knowing it would likely be his last. If only for a second, to be cared about like this. It was a magnificent feeling indeed.

Releasing his victim, Ivan smiled. “Thank you, Alik. You have treated me with such kindness.” he purred, coasting on this rare emotion of contentment. “I didn't do anything.” Alfred mumbled modestly. The Russian swept him into another embrace, much gentler than the first attempt. He hummed, depression melting away with the rain. “Let us go to your place for frosting and B movies, yes?” Ivan proposed happily.

#russia #rusame #amerus #america #hetalia #the feels #story #aww

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offtosavetheearth · 5 years

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June 29th 2018

First full day in the Jungle, and we have many activities planned. Our breakfast was eggs, pineapple, watermelon, plantains, yoghurt and granola, and coffee. Last night I slept on the queen bed, but I had to get up and pee about 7 times because the sound of the Napo River was messing with me. I’m still sick today, my lymph nodes have been super swollen for like over two weeks now, but onward we go. I whipped out my blue-green poncho, and everyone got rain boots for the boat ride. I sat next to Ginger, my boat buddy, and we drove through the Napo River for over an hour to get to the Amazoonica animal rescue center.

Amazoonico is a wildlife rescue center located in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest that rehabilitates, reintroduces, and cares for animals who are victims of illegal trafficking. All of the animals that arrive at the center are brought by the Ministry of the Environment, the result of confiscations from people who have kept them as pets or intended to sell or trade them on the black market. Some animals arrive suffering from multiple physical and behavioral problems which make it impossible for them to live free in the forest. In those cases, they are provided with enclosures similar to their original habitat, where they can live in the most natural conditions possible. In other cases, if the animals arrive in good physical and mental condition and after passing through quarantine, various examinations, and a rehabilitation process, they can be successfully reintroduced back into their natural habitat.

Founded in 1993, Amazoonico is a non-governmental organization created by a Swiss-Quichua couple named Angelika Raimann and Remigio Canelos. Together with Christine von Steiger, they wanted to protect the fauna of the Amazon, creating a center that would receive, treat, rehabilitate, and reintroduce wild animals that had been confiscated from illegal trade. In order to fulfill the plans for reintroduction it was important to create another project that would be exclusively dedicated to protection the rainforest itself, working with the community towards a common goal of sustainable and practical resource use. So came the birth of Selva Viva: a large umbrella project which would come to include 1750 hectares of protected forest, a trilingual school for the neighboring community, and two Eco-lodges which promote ecotourism. The project has been widely embraced by the nearby community and those who visit it daily, and has come to be well-recognized as a sanctuary of care and respect for wildlife. The driving force behind amaZOOnico are the Padrinos, volunteers, and tourists. Each day, they take care of the work with the animals, educational campaigns, and the maintenance of the infrastructure, the collection of funds and the general upkeep of the center.

Our tour guide was from Switzerland and she is working there for two months. She was kind of ditzy, but I think it is because she wasn’t comfortable with her English. On our tour we met toucans first, who while beautiful, are known to be incredibly aggressive and territorial. Their feathers had been plucked for ancient local rituals, and they had been taken to the center to regrow them. However they are now too acclimated to living in a cage around humans, so they must stay in the rescue center for the remainder of their lives. Next was the three and a half meter long Anaconda, who had her sensory organ taken out from her tongue, which helped to determine if her prey was dead or alive. She was found as a tourist attraction, and must stay there forever, with her roommate the Boa Constrictor. The Macaws we saw were very special, but very loud. They are often kept as pets, but given away after two years because their owners did not anticipate how noisy they would be. These birds choose their mates for life, and one wild Macaw chose a mate inside the cage, so every day he comes and perches on the top of the chain links so he can be with his wife.

We moved onto the monkeys, and I especially like Mono Capuchinos. This species uses its tail as a fifth hand, and every time tourists come around, one of the monkeys puts on a show. Hunted for their young, the mothers are usually shot so that the young they carry will fall to the ground and can be captured. Oftentimes Capuchinos arrive at Amazoonica paralyzed from the fall off their mother’s back. Pecaris, or relatives of wild pigs, were grouped together as a pack in this reserve. As a common dish for holidays, Amazoonica tries to release 8-10 a year away from civilization so they won’t be captured and eaten. Other attractions were the Coati, which reminded me of a possum or raccoon, a wild cat similar to Jaguars, and Amazon River Turtles. My absolute favorite were the Spider Monkeys and Chi Chico. Amazoonica’s Spider Monkeys were to be released soon, with a pack that hung around their group cage. The Chi Chico, Ecuador’s smallest monkey, was found in a backpack being smuggled across the border of Peru. His brother died due to parasites, but he now calls the reserve his home.

Of all these animals rescued, 1/3 survive at stay, 1/3 die, and 1/3 survive and our released. To be honest, this was identical to a Zoo for me. I didn’t feel that their project had stayed our course for its goals and mission. Yes they gave the animals similar habitats to that of their natural homes, but to allow tourists to come view them in cages for money, and their ratio of those rehabilitated in the wild, did not convince me that they were truly following the founders’ beliefs.

After our fairly brief visit, we traveled a short distance to eat lunch by the river. We were served this rice conglomeration with chicken, corn, and all sorts of vegetables mixed in. For sides we had tomatoes, lettuce, apples, huge bananas from Colombia, and water. I was pretty much choking on the rice the whole meal and attracting way too much attention. I sounded like a dying squeaker toy with a tomato face to boot. I blame the Ahi sauce and my closed off throat, plus the drizzling rain and cold wind. Lunch was quickly over and we were off to visit the Tiyayaku indigenous community guided by Marco. Our first demonstration was artisanal gold mining. The community is named after the river they mine in, and there are 15 families with approximately 68 people. To mine they arrive along the river at 4 am, carry big pots that weigh around 40 kg. They stay there till 3pm, usually waiting till the water is high and coming from the north, for that is when they find the most gold. It’s important for the Tiyayaku to have strong metal sticks, helping dig up more minerals to bring back to the village. Once they have dug up the ground and moved it into the circular bowl, they partially dip it into the river, moving the bowl in a specific circular motion to keep the gold grain inside. After this practice, they used to put the gold in their mouth to separate it from the iron, but nowadays a magnet is used. Women and men alike carry these heavy pots about 15 meters, either on their shoulder or their back. About 90 pots is one gram of gold, and one gram is 20 to 30 dollars in market.

Walking into the village we saw a diverse array of flora species, such as the well-known paradise flower with over 57 types in Ecuador. The indigenous use this plant for shampoo and sweet water; because of this sweet water, its inside petals are house various insects. A wide variety of this flower contributes to many different species of Hummingbirds.

We were led into a large wood-gated common area, where Rosalina, a grandmother of 35 grandchildren, showed us how they utilized the Yuca. With three different types harvested in the beginning, middle, and end of the year, it is the most important and most nutritious of their harvest. They also make the chichi drink, by fermenting this plant. It is so integral to their culture that spouses are chosen based on how well the woman can make this alcoholic beverage. After we all had a taste of the strange-milky vodka-tasting drink, two volunteers were brought up to make ceramics out of clay. This activity has been lost my many communities, because children simply aren’t interested in learning ancient skills. The making of ceramics was vital to this culture, so they could feed their families from pots and bowls, each with a specific purpose.

Our last activity was shooting darts out of the blow guns to hit a wooden toucan. Tactics like this were used to fight off the conquering Incas from invading the Amazon. At the gift shop I purchased a hand-made bowl designed with butterflies, toucans, and a woman. Then it was back on the boat for a quick ride to our cabins. I felt awful after sitting in the cold and the rain. In my opinion, cultural ecotourism activities like this do more good than harm. It seems to be keeping the culture alive against waves of modernization and outsourced labor. Not only does it provide income for the Tiyayaku, it also forces them to keep practicing ancient traditions to showcase their history and development. In terms of our cabins, I also think it is the most practical and sustainable way to combine humans and the environment. By integrating cabins into the landscape, destroying as little of the rainforest as possible, a deeper appreciation of nature is established, and visitors are encouraged to protect this house of biodiversity.

As soon as we got home I took a shower and napped until dinner. But when I woke up I felt even worse; my eardrum was swollen, itchy, and pounding, my throat hurt, I was hacking up globs of mucus, and my head was killing me. After our dinner of cornita frijo, fish, and fruit, I asked Felipe for an ibuprofen, and went to bed around 8:30pm.

The plan is to go to the doctor in Quito tomorrow, so here’s hoping.

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tortuefleur · 7 years

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A Dream of Psuedodragons and Ambrosia

What it says on the tin, I had a dream about fantasy and magic that ended up being somewhat emotional.

My dream was in the setting of a D&D adventure. The party was of a Thief, a Sorceress and two others I don’t recall. The Sorceress was much older and seemed to be able to change her shape at will. She spent most of her time as a mostly naked anthro dragon because why in the world wouldn’t you? At first it seemed as the though the dream was being DMed by the players, each one taking a turn, but at some point that detail became less relevant.

No one trusted the thief at all but since he had a magic flying broom he was the go to person for doing scouting and searching expeditions for the party. So to keep an eye on him the Sorceress sent her pseudodragon familiar along on all of his reconnaissance missions. In normal D&D a pseudodragon is a sort of fey creature that just looks like a dragon but is really a little fey beast. In the setting of the dream, a pseudodragon was basically a tiny dragon cobbled together out of other animals and given a coat of shiny glitter paint. The Sorceress could see through her familiar’s eyes when she cared to do so and the familiar was amenable. Often, the Thief would tell the familiar disparaging things about the Sorceress just to bother her, or tell stories to pass the time and bore the Sorceress into taking her attention away from the Thief so he could operate without oversight.

In one of these stories he talked about Ambrosia, in the dream Ambrosia was a substance that grows tremendously high up, at the very top of the biggest thunder head clouds. Too far for any normal sort of flight to reach. The consumption of Ambrosia could make a person godlike, not a god by any means, but given the taste of godhood. It would make them unnaturally healthy, lucky and immortal. And he said that he’d tasted it himself, which is why he was still around at all.

As he told the story, I remember the pseudodragon listening with rapt attention. Curling around his shoulders like a sequined boa, tiny head resting on his collar bone. They were in the dark, lit by the dim light of a glow stone he'd kept for reading while scouting. The pseudodragon could not speak, but cooed and hummed like a bird. The pseudodragon often listened like this, to his stories.

Eventually, the party heard about The Test of Mettle. A magical phenomena where a gossamer road would appear at a tremendous distance in the sky. Anyone that could reach it would be able to enter the test. When a person enters the test, touches their feet on the road, they are given a wish. And the last one standing on the road gets to keep their wish. (Though that phrasing is not literal, technically everything ABOVE the road also counted.) The Sorceress declined doing the test as she had already entered The Test long ago, and won. Hence why she could change shape whenever and however she liked. And apparently, you could only win once. Though, unfortunately due to angering a certain god as adventurers often do, she was also cursed to be unable to fly regardless of the shape of her body.

The party went however, and it was terrible.

They quickly fell into in fighting, the phantasmal road was heavy with the blood of those desperate to keep their heart’s desires. I never saw the other two nameless members of my party again. I recall that one was a man, the other a woman, they had fond feelings for one another. Had, at least.

Eventually it came down to the Thief, who for some reason had not won yet despite being the last person standing on the road. This was due to his own wit and trickery, and a battery of magical potions and trinkets he’d been hoarding for this day. Then the Sorceress played her hand and commanded her familiar, having been stowed into the pack of one of the party members, to make a wish officially. The familiar had been waiting, intelligent enough to count as a contestant, and made their wish then. They wished to become a real dragon. And then I was suddenly and vividly a point of view player in the dream.

I was the pseudodragon, now a true dragon, though I kept the galaxy splash of glitter paint for a color scheme. I went through the bizarre unfolding of muscles and bones to become majestic and powerful. I tore through the backpack I had hid in, leaving tin plates and mugs scattered around me. And I took a look at the Thief, recalled his story about Ambrosia, and immediately flew up into the clouds overhead. It was immense, how joyous the feel of real flight was to me. Feeling droplets of cloud vapor whip past me, pumping the neophyte musculature of my wings. With the vigor of an utterly new body I found and consumed Ambrosia, neon globs of light vaguely in the shape of grapes that were growing from the top most part of the clouds. They tasted like the air before a thunder storm, like ozone and possibility.

I returned to the road, touching down on graceful claws, a tapering tail of glimmering scales curling around me.

I was not going to go back to being that wretched fake dragon for any reason. The thought only took up the space between seconds until I had hunted down and tackled the Thief. There was no contest, no way his brawn could overcome mine, but he tried. Potions of strength came clattering empty to the road when I slammed into him. I was after all, still a very small dragon. I was only about the size of a slightly above average adult human… which to be fair was humongous compared to my prior size. I also didn’t want to actually kill the Thief.

I had no animosity to him at all, he had only ever been kind to me. And while we wrestled, knives and various cutlery bared between us as we fought rolling over the packs and supplies brought from our original party, I recalled his stories with a new mind.

The Sorceress had obviously already known about Ambrosia, of course, so he must have known this… why tell a story like that at all? I reasoned he must have been telling me, even though he knew I could hardly fly at all in my old body. He told me a lot of stories I realized. Even though I was his indirect method of nettling the Sorceress, he only really treated me kindly. And he must have known I was in the pack I hid in, it was his business to know those things. Did he let me come, knowing that the Sorceress had some intention?

Eventually I was on top of him again, I had claws so close to his eyes. I didn’t want to kill him, I desperately didn’t want to kill him, I just wanted him to give up. To just, drop out of the test so that I could stay this way. That feeling was vivid, uncontrollable and without any other logic at all. I felt his strength give out suddenly, and a claw shot forward into his left eye.

I felt the material of it, delicate and soft, and then saw it ooze like a broken egg. In shock, I watched his face, pained but without malice. He fell through the gossamer road under me and out of The Test. I remember how viscerally sick the feeling made me even now, ocular humors dripping down my taloned paw.

He turned in the air, gripped with his whole body on his riding broom, and flew off out of sight.

I felt tears running down my long face and laid there on the spot. In victory, I sobbed pitifully for hurting the only person that had really treated me as anything other than a tool. After all, my mind was barely an hour old at that point. Everything felt so big, all of my emotions were so wild. Tail over my head, I saw something move into close proximity.

The image of the Sorceress was standing beside me, squinting up at the clouds then down at me. She was tall, imposing, covered in indigo scales with her muscular chest pushed out and back ramrod straight. Though she was only a sending, a transparent image of herself, I could feel her power and purpose. Glaring at me, I felt the distant tug of her will. To go the clouds and get her Ambrosia before the road disappeared again. This was always her goal, and no matter what shape I was in I would still be her familiar.

And then I woke up.

And now writing this down I wonder what the thief’s wish was, that he seemed to be no different at all during the test than I remembered him otherwise. I have this awful feeling that I was misgendering them, at the end.

#dream #writing #transformation #dragons #dungeons and dragons #fantasy

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shanethvarosa · 6 years

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2018: In Review

At this point in time, I feel like my blog is 100% reblogs of memes and ridiculous videos of animals and maybe some gratuitous selfies. Originally, Shaneth Varosa was supposed to be a place for me to publish some of my articles about music and try to facilitate discussion about these releases. Unfortunately, life gets in the way, and I can’t write like I used to. While here on Christmas break from work, and with the next hour or so of free time I have, I wanted to go over some of the artists that did The Most this year and recommend their work in case you’re in need of something new and exciting. See more after the cut!

I’d like to start with about five honorable mentions and then move in to the ten artists who did the best job at promoting their craft and developing something sincere and meaningful. These honorable mentions all had really great releases, but overall didn't feel very impactful to pop culture overall.

1. Florence And The Machine - High As Hope was absolutely one of my most anticipated albums this year, especially after the amazing lead single was released out of the clear blue sky. The follow up single, Hunger, is one of the most relatable tracks in her discography. However, the lack of overall energy was somewhat disappointing despite the lyrics being 100% on point.

2. Miyavi - I’m not sure I’m as big a fan of the Samurai Guitarist as I used to be, however he really is expanding upon his talents and schmoozing with the right people. A feature from Samuel L. Jackson was no small feet and he really did some neat guitar work on his third collaborative album this year.

3. Crystal Kay - A Japanese/American pop star with a voice like Janet Jackson, but does not always make the strongest choices when it comes to album tunes. Her singles for this era were almost entirely ballads, so when she released an album with actual bangers for the summer, I was very impressed.

4. Cher - Usually, when Cher releases an album it is a shoe-in victory for album of the year. However, she really only did a cover album of songs, even if they were completely amazing songs. Here’s hoping she has a collection of original material to release soon.

5. DADAROMA - A newer VK mainstay, but they haven’t actually released a full collection in over two years. Instead, they’re focusing on singles and EPs. This year, they began with “This is Live” which really blew me away following their lackluster third installment of the Dadaism series. They rounded out the year with the fourth installment which was also a significant improvement. However, in 2019, they should consider an album.

Without any further ado, the top ten artists who really Did That this year:

10. Troye Sivan: I am a sucker for a good Gay Tune and “Bloom” had 12 of them. It’s rare when you find an album that has no tracks you want to skip, and maybe I’m biased, but there isn't one track that isn’t relatable to me and most of my pals. Highlights: Plum, Dance to This, Animal.

9. CHVRCHES: Every couple of years, I’m guaranteed an over-the-top synth album from this group. Their debut found me at just the right time and their follow up found me at just the right time as well. These two albums really struck a chord with me personally and so naturally I was through the roof the Love is Dead was announced. While the production and vocal performance was totally still there, the lyrical content didn’t quite get me the way the previous albums did. Highlights: Graffiti, Graves, Deliverance.

8. Kamijo: Interesting how my favorite male singer and my favorite female singer both released albums this year and how neither of them made top five. Well, of course they were both excellent, but something stopped them from being everything they could be. Kamijo’s newest solo effort came in four parts and they were all a little confusing. Sang’s main storyline seemed to insinuate Napoleon Bonaparte was a vampire and the third installment of the album was a duet with vocaloid Hatsune Miku. Not to say the vocal performance and composition weren’t top of the line, but I just don’t know what he was trying to do with this era. Highlights: Sang II, Emigre, Nosferatu.

7. Dir en grey: The world’s most iconic shock-rock band finally returned to us after a four year hiatus. This year’s Insulated World really did give us something to behold: A concept album that wasn’t completely based on mindless violence and fake-deepery. Sure, Kyo does his standard noise-making throughout a lot of the album, but I firmly believe this is their best work in about ten or more years. Highlight: Ranunculus, Keigaku no Yoku (Ravenous Greed), Ningen wo Kaburu (Suffering Human Beings).

6. The 1975: A recent favorite of mine. Their singles for this era really enraptured what it is to be in your late 20′s in today’s day and age. Their whole album ended up being somewhat bizarre and ballad-heavy, but everything they put out before the main LP was fire and deeply, personally relatable. Highlights: Give Yourself a Try, Love it If We Made It, I Like America and America Likes Me.

5. David: Most who will read this post will probably not know that “David” is a pseudonym for VK heavy-hitter Sui. This man started out in Metis Gretel many years ago, moved to a band called Megaromania, worked briefly with Lin before ultimately achieving his solo project which is easily the best thing he’s ever done. Probably because it is produced by Kamijo, but I digress. This year, he gave us his first solo album released in too-many parts, but the overall product was outstanding. His visuals even made him look like a true-blue cartoon character. Highlights: Confession (Awakening and Genesis), Genesis (In Bible), Metempsychosis.

4. Panic! At the Disco: This band, whom we all know is just Brendan Urie, blew me away several years ago with Death of a Bachelor and the only way he could go at the time was down. DOAB was one of my top 25 albums of all time and I didn’t think he could outdo himself, but the energy given to us on Pray For the Wicked was genuinely dumbfounding. His lyrics were and are always at the forefront of what makes him special and for that reason I’m ecstatic that I have “Filthy as Charged” on a t-shirt. Also, he managed to make the title track of “The Greatest Showman” into the banger hit I knew it could be. Highlights: Dancing’s Not a Crime, Dying in LA, Old Fashioned.

3. Asagi: For those of you who don’t know, Asagi is another heavy-hitter in the VK world. He did attempt a solo project back in the day, but it didn’t take off. This year, thankfully, it really did in the biggest way and he didn't let his main project, D, suffer at all. Fans were getting bored of D’s constant Vampire and/or Alice in Wonderland themes and so he basically said “I hear your pleas, here is what we give you” and released a traditional Japanese album with a modern twist in January as the true beginning of his solo presence. The man then followed up with several incredible singles with D including Revive and Deadly Sin, both of whom had insane B-Sides. Highlights: Madara (Chestnut Tiger Butterfly), Gekkai no Miko (Children of the Moon World), Homuzakura (Hidden Cherry Blossoms).

2. the GazettE: An absolutely legendary band, one of the fewest VK success stories to be told. They’ve released so many concept albums over the years with stacks and stacks of successful singles, but 2015 really was their comeback year. They revamped everything about themselves and gave fans the darkest album in recent history. How do they follow it up? With their 9th LP of varying intensity, which was actually quite refreshing. My personal favorite aspect is how absolutely self-gratifying it was. Highlights: Ninth Odd Smell, The Mortal, Sono Koe wa Moroku (This Voice is Weak).

1. BoA: My favorite multi-national pop-star had a... Kind of ridiculous last few years. In 2014 she released a Japanese comeback album that was literally a collection of singles that came out since her last album. In 2015, though, she brought us back with a Korean album really showcasing her talents as a singer/songwriter and then in 2018 she did THE MOST!!!! She starts the year with a Korean EP called “One Shot, Two Shot” which was all bangers, and then followed up with a Japanese LP called “Watashi Kono Mama de ii no Kana (I Wonder if I Can Remain this Good).” This album was a little less perfect than the EP, however it will be forgiven as it had a perfect selection of ballads with one of the hottest tracks of the year: Mannish Chocolat. Don’t ask me what that means. Almost immediately after, she released an EP called “Unchained” which was an acoustic set of some of her recent ballads. Most notably, “Close to Me” was released as a completely acoustic piano ballad. Several months go by, and she comes back with a Korean LP called “Woman” which was almost completely perfect as well. “Encounter” and “No Limit” are probably the hottest tracks, but the title-track really showcases her feminist nature. She rounded out the year with yet another Japanese single called “Amor” which is, truly, the hottest dance track of 2018. I hope she keeps this momentum up next year!

#BoA #the GazettE #Asagi #panic! at the disco #The 1975 #Sui #Dir en grey #Kamijo #chvrches #troye sivan

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bibliobasilisk · 7 years

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Who's Chiyo? What can you tell me of the gadfly trio? You've peaked my interest! Please tell me you're writing this!

oh boy. ohhhh boy. OHHHH BOY. im so freaking excited now i whipped out my laptop for the sole reason of answering this bad boy :DDDDDDDDD

shhhh im supposed to do doing other things *cough* sleeping *cough* but i love this au too much

ive also got the a-ok to answer this because chiyo is @chanlyeya 's character technically so….. i can go hog-wild :D

ps please ignore the grammar again ill fix this later but its 1am and i dont particularly care

shit this actually got really long im inserting a read more here

Chiyoko Amarante is chan’s baby character. her quirk is “Composition Touch” btdubs thats a temp name that chan and i literally just came up with as i write this lol which is that she takes on the properties of any material she touched with all five (5) fingers. consequentially, she always wears gloves, unless the situation, ie, a battle occurring, calls for it otherwise. during her childhood she was thought to be quirkless, but some heavy trauma from watching her beloved big brother die awoke her quirk, which incidentally is very similar to his own.

but i cant talk about chiyos past without talking about chisaki, her big brother.

chan and i love this boy so damned much and hes dead before the freaking story even begins. were dragging yall down into this hell with us

Chisaki Amarante was a star of the support class of ua, and everyone wanted him to go into heroics because his quirk was really awesome???? but no????? this boy?????? just wanted to help people and felt that hed best do that in a supporting role in the heroics department. this boy!!!! is PURE!!!!! he supports chiyo unconditionally in her dreams as a child!!!!! even though she faced all kinds of discrimination as a child because of her perceived quirklessness!!! this boy is a Good Boy.

fun fact: chiyo and tokoyami grew up in the same general neighborhood and were friends of a sort more like acquaintances but they were children

anyways back to my original point: not only was he super loving and unconditionally supportive of chiyo, he ALSO helped toko get over the fear of his quirk!!!!! at least until he got to the point where he was in canon

actually while i think about it here’s some links to chan’s art:

https://chanlyeya.tumblr.com/post/163889951928/here-have-some-eyes-because-i-wasnt-able-to

https://chanlyeya.tumblr.com/post/163801612688/and-heres-the-flats-and-line-art-because-im-a and hopefully write. maybe. hopefully eventually?

ok back to chiyo: she definitely has trauma issues from her brother’s death. incidentally he didnt even die in a hero accident or anything. he just.. got sick and died.

flash forward into canon era: shes in class 1B heroics department with Nozomi Hizashi MY DAUGHTER!!! and the rest of the canon kids. just so you know, weve created a whole lost of kids and quirks for the sole reason of filling in those missing blanks in class b. it was hard. while nozomi worked hard and got a scholarship into ua, chiyo actually got recommended thanks to her brother. actually her brother is the only reason shes attending, thanks to her battle with depression and trauma. she can be a little cold and distant (for obvious reasons, see: depression) but she can hyper-focus on things shes interested in. just… sometimes those things can be… strange. off of the top of my head she once got super into competitive hula-hooping and something with the history of oranges i think. i may have just made that up. who knows? not me. she is SUPER SMART though. like i said in the nozomi post, shes a genius. before she met monoma and nozomi though, she was cold and distant. shes battling her depression with them at her side though!!! it sure would be tragic if something happened to her support system huh?? ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗonto part two of the ask!!!! THE GADFLY TRIO :DDD

seriously i love these three. but im saying up front: monoma causes most of the incidents with bakugou. because rivalry issues. hes an idiot i know.

each member has their own niche, though it can change depending on the plan of action and other factors. but suffice to say the roles are:

nozomi- the distraction, the innocent face, the fall woman (she can get away with almost anything)

chiyo- the mastermind and the planner, with a side of being the muscle when shes not interested in being the mastermind

monoma- the henchman, the thief, and idea guy (like i said he instigates a lot of pranks, but both chiyo and nozomi instigate a lot of things too)there are several That-Must-Not-Be-Named Incidents with the Gadfly Trio, one of which includes macaroni and a feather boa. do not ask. Midoriya is still traumatized because that’s how he was first introduced to the trio. he was warned. he met nozomi. he did not listen. and now here we are. in therapy. Moral of the story is, dont mess with the gadfly trio.

if anyone was wondering, their teacher, sekijirou kan, named them the gadfly trio accidentally. its because the trio are gadflies, ie, they like to exasperate the situation past the boiling point all for the sake of their own amusements. they dont do it maliciously, however. most of the time, see: monoma vs bakugou.

before they were all formed, it was mostly up to the class president, itsuka kendo, to restrain monoma from his animosity with class a, but now its mostly up to the trio. it doesnt always work lol. haha i just checked and its 2am and ive written almost 1k words on this subject thats way more than i though i was capable of lol. to answer the final question, no were not currently working on ksk right now, but hopefully we will return to this in the future because i genuinely love this au a lot and i really want this thing to take off but with chan working on upwards of……………… 7 wips??? and i lack the confidence in my own writing skills to do anything why do you think im the beta lol??? but we will return eventually! i hope! if people are genuinely interested ill try to answer any questions!

psst dont go to chan right now shes overloaded with the letter asks because she doesnt know how to restrain herself lol

#bnha oc #chiyoko amarante #chisaki amarante #nozomi hizashi #monoma neito #gadfly trio #i love these assholes

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ishouldreadthat · 7 years

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Happy Monday, you guys! As I mentioned last Friday, I have been in a little reading slump, so I don’t have a review prepared for you today. So instead, I thought I’d bring back one of my favourite posts. It’s time for Part Two of the Beginner’s Guide to Science Fiction!

If you’d like to check out Part One, you can find it here. What I try to do is recommend science fiction books that you might like based on your favourite books, themes, etc. There won’t be any young adult books on this list – I’m still so new to the genre and quite frankly, someone else will have better knowledge of YA sci-fi than me. Here we go!

I love Star Trek, particularly the Original Series

Redshirts by John Scazli

We all know the jokes about red shirts – the crew members who always seem to get bumped off by horrible space monsters on away missions with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. But what if those characters had their own story?

Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It’s a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship’s Xenobiology laboratory.

Life couldn’t be better…until Andrew begins to pick up on the fact that:

(1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces

(2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations

(3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.

Not surprisingly, a great deal of energy below decks is expended on avoiding, at all costs, being assigned to an Away Mission. Then Andrew stumbles on information that completely transforms his and his colleagues’ understanding of what the starship Intrepid really is…and offers them a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives.

I make no secret of the fact that I’m a huge Star Trek fan. I grew up on the Original Series and have since been working my way through all the series. I can safely say that Red Shirts is the perfect book for Star Trek fans. It gets a bit weird further along in the plot, but it is just so funny, moving, and incredibly meta. You can tell that Scalzi is a huge fan of the show.

Bonus points for Trekkies: Wil Wheaton does the narration of the audio book.

Shut up, Wesley

I love Star Wars, particularly the original trilogy

The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn

I’m going to go ahead and throw out a controversial nerd opinion: the Star Wars expanded universe is pretty much all garbage. I’ve read many of the books – old and new – and they’re just not very good except for nostalgia. However, there is one exception to this rule, and that is the Thrawn trilogy:

It is a time of renewal, five years after the destruction of the Death Star and the defeat of Darth Vader and the Empire.

But with the war seemingly won, strains are beginning to show in the Rebel Alliance. New challenges to galactic peace have arisen. And Luke Skywalker hears a voice from his past. A voice with a warning. Beware the dark side….

The Rebel Alliance has destroyed the Death Star, defeated Darth Vader and the Emperor, and driven the remnants of the old Imperial Starfleet back into barely a quarter of the territory that they once controlled. Leia and Han are married, are expecting Jedi twins, and have shouldered heavy burdens in the government of the new Republic. And Luke Skywalker is the first in a hoped-for new line of Jedi Knights.

But thousands of light years away, where a few skirmishes are still taking place, the last of the Emperor’s warlords has taken command of the remains of the Imperial fleet. He has made two vital discoveries that could destroy the fragile new Republic—built with such cost to the Rebel Alliance. The tale that emerges is a towering epic of action, invention, mystery, and spectacle on a galactic scale—in short, a story that is worthy of the name Star Wars.

Timothy Zahn is a legend in the Star Wars expanded universe. He has written a number of books in the Legends (pre-Disney canon, read more here) universe, but the Thrawn trilogy reigns supreme as some of the best. Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command take place five years after the events of Return of the Jedi. If you have any interest in Star Wars, I so highly recommend these books. Zahn has such a knack for getting the dialogue just right – you really feel like Luke, Han, Leia, and others are actually speaking and interacting. It feels just like a new Star Wars adventure in the spirit of the original films and is just so much fun.

If you need even more convincing, the Thrawn trilogy has had a huge impact on the franchise. It is credited with revitalizing interest in Star Wars in the 90’s, leading George Lucas to show there was an audience for a prequel trilogy (I’ll let you decide whether or not this was a good thing or not). Zahn came up with the name Coruscant, which is the seat of Imperial power and the location of the Senate and Imperial Palace/Jedi Temple. This name stuck when the prequel films came out and the name Coruscant became canon even though the books technically were not – cool, huh?

I’m a big fan of Game of Thrones, particularly the politics and family saga

Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald

If you’re anything like me, the best part of Game of Thrones/The Song of Ice and Fire is the political machinations, family saga, and incredible cast of characters. Fantasy novels are great for this kind of plot, but what about science fiction? It turns out that Luna: New Moon is pretty much Game of Thrones in Space, at least as far as I’m concerned.

The Moon wants to kill you.

Maybe it will kill you when the per diem for your allotted food, water, and air runs out, just before you hit paydirt. Maybe it will kill you when you are trapped between the reigning corporations-the Five Dragons-in a foolish gamble against a futuristic feudal society. On the Moon, you must fight for every inch you want to gain. And that is just what Adriana Corta did.

As the leader of the Moon’s newest “dragon,” Adriana has wrested control of the Moon’s Helium-3 industry from the Mackenzie Metal corporation and fought to earn her family’s new status. Now, in the twilight of her life, Adriana finds her corporation-Corta Helio-confronted by the many enemies she made during her meteoric rise. If the Corta family is to survive, Adriana’s five children must defend their mother’s empire from her many enemies… and each other.

This book is so good. Unlike Game of Thrones, it is a very slow burn but the payoff is incredible. You have your family, the Cortas instead of the Starks, who range from the flippant to the dedicated. You don’t only get the point of view from the Cortas – one of the best characters in the book in Marina, who is plucked up from absolute poverty by Ariel Corta after a chance encounter.

The world building in this book is absolutely stunning. Everything from the oxygen allowance to the Cora homestead of Boa Vista is just incredible. The stakes are so high not just because of the tensions between ruling families, but the environment they live in. The ending of this book is explosive and so incredibly good. Fortunately for you, the second book is out now too.

I read a lot of literary fiction and want something to ease myself into sci-fi

Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber or Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Book of Strange New Things and Never Let Me Go are two incredibly different, but beautifully written examples of literary science fiction from two of the best authors out there. First, The Book of Strange New Things:

It begins with Peter, a devoted man of faith, as he is called to the mission of a lifetime, one that takes him galaxies away from his wife, Bea. Peter becomes immersed in the mysteries of an astonishing new environment, overseen by an enigmatic corporation known only as USIC. His work introduces him to a seemingly friendly native population struggling with a dangerous illness and hungry for Peter’s teachings—his Bible is their “book of strange new things.” But Peter is rattled when Bea’s letters from home become increasingly desperate: typhoons and earthquakes are devastating whole countries, and governments are crumbling. Bea’s faith, once the guiding light of their lives, begins to falter.

Suddenly, a separation measured by an otherworldly distance, and defined both by one newly discovered world and another in a state of collapse, is threatened by an ever-widening gulf that is much less quantifiable. While Peter is reconciling the needs of his congregation with the desires of his strange employer, Bea is struggling for survival. Their trials lay bare a profound meditation on faith, love tested beyond endurance, and our responsibility to those closest to us.

I loved this book so much. It’s weird and wonderful and a new take on the space exploration narrative. Peter is the first Catholic missionary to be sent to another planet. Oasis is galaxies away from Earth, but the USIC is willing to shoulder the cost of sending him to preach to the native population. His wife Bea is his anchor in life and, while they can communicate via messages, she must stay behind. Life on Earth begins to crumble as life on Oasis flourishes, and two people separated by a huge distance must rely on each other as their lives take completely different turns. Ugh I love this book so much. It is so powerful, raw, emotional, and gorgeous.

Now for Never Let Me Go:

As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were. Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life, and for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special—and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together.

This doesn’t sound much like science fiction, does it? I promise you that it is! If you haven’t had this spoiled for you, run out to the bookstore and pick this up right away. If you have, go pick it up anyway. Ishiguro is an incredibly talented writer across multiple genres – The Remains of the Day is one of my all-time favourite books – and his take on sci-fi is no exception. This book dives deep into so many ethical issues in a way that only a sci-fi novel can. Grab your tissues, y’all. This book made me cry so hard.

Show me some sci-fi that messes with gender norms and expectations

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

To only recommend Ancillary Justice on the basis of the book’s gender bending does it a huge disservice. This is an absolutely incredible work of science fiction that’s exciting, fast-paced, and mind-bending:

On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest. Once, she was the Justice of Toren – a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy. Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.

You read that right. Breq is a person, but once was a starship. Technically, Breq was the sentient artificial intelligence that inhabited the starship and all the ancillary soldiers that were part of that ship. There are parts of the book where she flashes back to the past and says things like, ‘I was in the room with the general. I was also down the hallway guarding the room. There were two of me patrolling the square’ and so on. It takes awhile to get used to this, but it becomes very natural.

The main thing people talk about when discussing this book is that there is no real gender differentiation. The Radch, the culture Breq served as an AI, refer to all persons as ‘she’. Again, this is confusing at first (especially for Breq, who cannot tell if she’s speaking to a man or a woman when she’s outside of Radch space and people care about these kinds of things) but you get used to it. This gendering is not done with any kind of social justice behind it. It is not something that the author uses as a message. It is an incredibly well-executed aspect of a culture she creates. I really, really enjoyed Ancillary Justice and plan to read the rest of the trilogy. It is fast-paced, well-written, and deserving of all the praise it has received.

That’s it for The Beginner’s Guide to Science Fiction: Part 2! Have you read any of these books? Do any grab your interest? Let me know if you’d like me to do more of these beginner’s guides – I really enjoyed putting them together!

I’m also thinking of pulling parts 1 and 2 into a video – what do you think? Let me know in the comments!

It's back! The Beginner's Guide to Science Fiction Part 2 #bookbloggers #scifi Happy Monday, you guys! As I mentioned last Friday, I have been in a little reading slump, so I don’t have a review prepared for you today.

#Blog #Book blog #Book Blogger #books #Fiction #Geek #Genre #novel #Reading #Recommendations #Redshirts #Reviews #sci fi #Science Fiction #Space #Star Trek #Star Wars #Thrawn Trilogy #Writing

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