#Russian main order brides

[lizalfosrise]

Rise who are your favorite AK antagonists? Personality, aesthetics, story, gameplay, whatever metric you want to use.

Ahh, there's so many!

Most Reunion commanders of course but especially:

Crownslayer - seeing that artwork of Crownslayer on the hill of Chernobog rubble as a promo near launch then in that intro in-game was instantly 'wow i hope we get them that outfit is stylish- wait what do you mean she's an antagonist AHHH THAT'S NOT GONNA WORK OUT FOR HER! STOP!' (Lo and behold, clownslayer bullying) She just keeps getting fucked over progressively worse as things go on... W - The Character Of All Time. Starting off like 'oh sick ch1 boss design- hang on she SMOKEBOMBED AWAY!? NO DEATH ANIMATION ALLOWED HAHAHA HOW FUNKY! "KILL YOU LATER" alrighty!' and then uh yeah, Chapters 2&3 happened. Boy was that fucked up. But then we got to see her plans unfurl prior to Darknights Memoir which solidified her as Fucking Incredible. I finally understood the Hype about her banner on CN. Character I simply resonated with so strongly at that point. Phenomenal major player in the main story. Is she bound to meet a violent end? I feel like it'd be a neat and tragic mirror to the end of Arc 1 if there was an Amiya/W face-off eventually. FrostNova - Yelenaaaaaa....... Perish in Frost is gonna end me all over again honestly. Very important bnuyu. Listening to Lullabye repeatedly lately; in memoriam, and an attempt to memorise the lyrics in anticipation. Personally it's kind of amusing that she gets the True Rng attacks with her Black Icicles. Genuine, authentic russian roulette gameplay. Crisp design, that pale ice-blue is a nice touch.

Non-Reunion:

Mandragora - my wonderful soggiest poor little meow meow dripping mud n dirt n blood everywhere <3 Ain't she great! Now that Yato can go visorless, a Masked slot is available! Make it so, Hypergryph. Sometimes self-care is skewering Victorians to instil fear as catharsis for trauma-inducing abuse that more-or-less ended one of her lives that she crawled out of like a more bedraggled version of Kill Bill's The Bride. Unhinged, justifiably-founded but now-disproportionate revenge is just fun. Wear your wrath like a mantle. Anyhow it's as gutting as intended that she's the one that most cared for her troops and the Taran peoples; for overturning the Victorian nobility and their policies. So it'd be nice to see an actual return after they let her vanish in Londinium. Also HornDragora excellent dynamics Ya - Ohohohohoho. Hypergryph really love making characters just for me~ They deserve to burn Yan to ashes, absolutely. Not the traitor bitch-in-chief Sui. Oh, you're mad that you got betrayed by the insects whom you taught to kill gods? Really now? That bastard pulled a Zaaro and wants to be the last one standing, to curse Yan with his rebirth and outlive those He betrayed. Fuck that. Ya is essentially bleeding out after being woken from stasis by the shitforbrain Shanhaizhong idiots yet doing all the cool wuxia villain shit in a heartbroken rampage to bring Sui back simply for Them to burn the world and die together as kin once more. Wonderful! And though I don't recall if Fire Emblem: Awakening did have that same exact dynamic between Grima and the Grimleal, I adore that scenario of 'hey you fucked me over in order to have the end of the world summoned for you BUT guess what? You die too, bitch. No world domination for you filth either!' (Heroes recently gave us the true Laser-Guided Karma moment with that) They carved away specific slivers of time for Their pocket dimension home to keep Their cherished moments away from humanity and got woken up by nobodies, for little of purpose. YA01, what a legendary codex tag. The boss gimmick was an interesting way of doing the clone tactic but damn those additional spawns if you let Them move too far forward. Overall I like Them a normal amount, see. Pancho Salas - This guy was ridiculous, what a goofy Bond villain parody. Lovely action film setpiece of a map fending off his armoured missile boat and those waverider casters from a chewed-up luxury yacht in an artificial sea. Taking his boat down only to face the absolute brick wall of an anchor-wielding seadog with a metal arm, damn. Dossoles Holiday was much more fun than expected even with its Deep Water/Tides mechanics. Kaschey - Not exactly a favourite, but. They made a very good punching bag of an Actual Evil Bastard. That scummy method of self-propagation allowing him to be all "Ursus is MY plaything and I shall continue to grease its wheels with the blood of all those my Glorious Empire shall oppress!" was one hell of a reveal to throw into that interlude, huh? And that colour palette he maintains across his victims - the austere, harsh grays and black against white with dashes of crimson: it's the bloodstains amidst the Ursus Tundra echoing his presence. That's a sublime and careful coordination, yet more of Hypergryph's mindful consideration and planning behind characters, behind lore themes & motifs. Zumama, during Great Chief Returns - I CAN BEAT GAVIAL'S STRENGTH WITH MY ENGINEERING I PROMMY, GODDAMMIT (can't, lmao) Tomimi, during Great Chief Returns - I CAN KEEP GAVIAL WITH ME IN ACAHUALLA FOREVER I PROMMY, GODDAMMIT (can't, lmao. Gets tail-spanked, lmao) Jetpack Thief/Jetman from IS2 simply because the Arts Drones are more of a threat than his dumb arse. Stall, he hops into flight when we're given Anti-Air Defense tiles boosting ranged atk, and when he lands you should have a burst dps melee ready to grind him. One of the safest Floor 3 bosses if rngesus has allowed it. IS3's Pathshaper gets a shout here too for being a hilariously-deletable non-event of a Floor 3 boss.

On the more passive antagonism side of things would be ones like:

Degenbrecher (all sides knew it's just a stalling game where Enciodes is far more antagonistic towards the Very Shitty Clan Leaders & Great Elder, yet Sharp actually held out sparring with her) The Last Steam Knight (a warping of conviction and duty beyond death that defends a final bastion "You are not permitted to stain MY Victoria! Trespasser!") Dusk ("Hey what the fuck are you looking for me for? Get in the painting idiots. Wait, you lot have too much trauma to deal with that? Lame. Why's my annoying big sister here too?!") Ho'olheyak (she's not evil, and not the arc's villain, just as she said; but her manipulation of various parties during Dorothy's Vision/Lonetrail and taunting of both Saria and Muelsyse was enough for us to find delightful)

[marine-indie-gal]

Zmey Gorynych

The Slavic Serpent Dragon of Russian Folklore, he is depicited as a Three-Headed Dragon or a Serpent with Human/Dragon character-like traits (sometimes he is also known for having Twelve Heads instead of Three). The Word "Zmei" is the masculine form of "Zmeya" meaning "Snake". But his full name means "Snake of the Mountains". Dragons in Slavic Mythology were mainly famous known for Being Tricksters, Destorying Lands, Kidnapping Mortal Women, and even fighting off Brave Knights to rescue the Damsel. In the Slavic Myth of Dobrynya Nikitich and the Dragon, Dobrynya's Mother warned her Son to stay off the Mountains (where the Dragon lives), but he disobyed his Mother's warnings as he bathed in the Puchai River after he went up to a Mountain but he encountered the Zmey Gorynych himself. Frightened at first, but he then found a Hat which belonged to the Greek Lands and used it to defeat the Dragon. Zmey begged the Soldier not to kill him as the Two made a Pact towards each other but Zmey later on disrespected his vow and kidnapped the Princess Zabava Putyatishna (the Niece of Prince Vladimir of Kev). Vladimir ordered the Soldier Dobrynya to rescue his Niece from the Dragon as the Soldier went back to the Mountain to rescue the Princess. Dobrynya trampled on Zmey's Dragon Pups but one of the Baby Dragons bit the Horse's Leg which immobilized it. Zmey was angry at the Soldier for the Death of his own Children and refused to let Zabava go without a fight. It took Three Days to slay off Zmey but when Dobrynya heard a voice from Heaven called out to him to slay the Beast, in which the Soldier does so finally. Zmey's blood didn't seep to the ground as the Blood was then swallowed by the Earth and Zabava was rescued.

SBSP Universe

Zmey Gorynych is the Three-Headed Serpent Dragon Prince of the Mountains. He is a sly wisecracker, argoant, as he is filled of mischief and pride. He often does to trick Humanity as he disguises himself as a Human Man to trick manipulate people throughout his entire schemes and even kidnap beautiful maidens (which often leads into Damsel Rescuing by Brave Soldiers who fought and Slay beasts). Zmey's main arch-nemesis was the Soldier, Dobrynya Nikitch (one of the most bravest and cunning soldiers of Russia who wasn't even afraid to fight a Beast).

Throughout the years, Zmey had many affairs with Many Human Women which ended up all getting eaten by Zmey since his Brides weren't really good enough for him as he would often usually get bored of them overtime after when he would first meet one. Upon his attention, his eyes was set on the Lovely Zabava (the Niece of the Russian Prince, Vladimir I Sviatoslavich), but since Zabava was actually in a courtship with her Boyfriend, Alyosha Popovich. To prevent her relationship with his Actual Lover, Zmey took the form of a Human and went over to Kiev to woo his Love for Her. Since Zabava was flattered by the impressions of the Disguised creature, Zmey kidnapped her and took her to the Mountains where he kept her as his Bride which made Zabava weep in tears for she was tricked and was forced to be the Wife of a Monster.

Alyosha knew that there was indeed something wrong with the Strange Man and seeing on how that the Serpent revealed himself, Vladimir ordered both Alyosha and Dobrynya to bring Zabava back. When the Two Heroes arrvived at the land, Zmey had capture her hoostage in her new room after they were wed, just so that the said Dragon could greet his Arch-Enemy and Zabava's Real Boyfriend over a feast at his Dinner Table. Fortunately, that ends up being ruined as Alyosha dumps the Wine into Zmey's eyes as the Dragon and the Two Men end up having a battle through the castle of the Mountains as Alyosha grabbed his Girlfriend to rescue her while Dobrynya and Zmey fought together outside of the Kingdom. Dobrynya eventually defeated Zmey as he managed to slay the Dragon. But after when Zabava finally came back home thanks to Dobrynya, Zabava married Alyosha but back at the Mountains of Zmey, his heads managed to pop back up after having his Heads cut off (turns out, he's a magicial dragon who was given immortaility as he can not ever be defeated and he only has one secret weekness). Whenever his heads are chomped off, it randomly grows back as he still manages to do tricks upon his own slef. Zmey isn't exactly a God despite being an Immortal being but he tends to trick around the Slavic Gods amongst their own Pantheon, he is most certainly netural on Chernabog as he is most definitely afraid of him at times despite being a champion towards the Brother of Belobog. He's not really a fan of Neptune nor Poseidon and finds most of the Roman and Greek Pantheon to be very unoriginal and boring. Needless to say, he's not really a fan of Other Pantheons and their own Gods.

[michel-tanguy]

New Post has been published on Michel Tanguy

New Post has been published on http://micheltanguy.com/western-dating-websites-where-to-begin-euro-women-relationship/

Western Dating Websites: Where To Begin Euro Women Relationship

Content material

Banking On Information: The World’s First-ever Widespread Forex

Top 10 Best European Dating Websites And Apps

This provider is particularly meant for buy German wife guys who will be in search of Russian women. Russian Brides may be a fun internet site for anybody looking to date, get married to, or simply speak with women. Russian Birdes-to-be has associated thousands of people through the years. The site only accepts women who presently live in China, Korea, Vietnam, Asia, the Thailand, Cambodia, and Singapore.

The approximate price tag of a K1 visa is definitely $1, 500, including all expenses. Ukraine is a big country, plus the mail buy Ukraine new bride value might differ counting on the area. Thus, the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, comes with greater costs in restaurants. Based on booking. com, the normal value for your 4-stars resort near the town center can be $90 per evening. Taxi cab companies are likewise more expensive than in numerous regions, therefore be able to pay out so much just for transportation.

Financial On Facts: The Planets First-ever Widespread Foreign Funds

Statistics present that immigrants are more secure in marriage than native-born People in the usa. Thus, the nationwide prevalent marriage success value amongst native-born Americans is normally 60%. On the other hand, it may probably attain about 80% amongst immigrant homeowners. If you’re taking K-1 vestibule, they continue to be constant through the years, totaling 31, 000 circumstances yearly from your early 2000s. Let’s require a better have got a glance at the success rates of them relationships. Consequently , mail-order birdes-to-be painting American guys when higher options to men of their country. Worse yet, the CoVID-19 outbreak diminished your life quality for over 97 million people around the globe, turning these to extreme poverty.

Really, Ukraine features one of the best literacy prices on the globe, with above 99% of its public being in a position to learn and write.

That they at all times look beautiful and knock straight down males using their shining smiles. Special attention ought to be paid to Crimea, a peninsular with breathtaking panoramas and ocean sceneries.

Naturally , audio messaging and online video or tone name capacities are all main if you’re thinking about courting somebody in a particular nation.

Shall we suppose that you merely want a couple of years to meet a soulmate — it will cost you $720-$1200.

It’s simple and easy to set up a profile, search for potential partners, and get very good matches produced based in your preferences.

Additionally , when looking for a spouse, you’ll prefer to discover as much with regards to the lady for the reason that potential. So , a service that ensures comprehensive profiles like Russian Birdes-to-be and Meet-Asian-Lady makes it easier to locate girls who definitely are a match for you. Nevertheless , dating somebody from one various other nation may cost more because you will end up purchasing additional issues like traveling charges and presumably a translator. Looking for a wife from one other nation just isn’t a lot different from courting close to home, hence spending money within a relationship will happen normally.

You better reveal the following countries that can be your finest alternatives. Jolly Relationship is a romantic relationship web site featuring an opportunity to satisfy women out of Europe, also it gives an actual opportunity to fulfill real girls thinking about severe you will have. Looking at your chance above, you probably can see that Africa girls currently have loyalty, splendor, sense of family, homeliness and values in common. Rwandan young girls are a variety of the most fabulous women around the African place. Rwanda is normally on the record of one of the finest African countries to find a better half. Family is essential to Rwandan women and as such wives are loyal to their partners. It is also an excellent place to discover a spouse because of the traditional worth and solid household connections that are deeply ingrained in Romanian population.

Top 10 Best European Dating Sites And Programs

Russian ladies are a story mix of appealing bodily looks and deep inside lives. Russian brides are recognized for their uniqueness, which is regarded one of the reasons so why they’re thus in style simply because mail buy girlfriends. It’s wonderful how one region can adapt to girls with such a number of beauty and viewpoints. They’re pretty various; in Russia, you’ll see plenty of Slavic blondes, Tatar or Kyrgyz brunettes, and females of all nationalities.

How exactly does Mail Order Brides Service Work?

Additionally it is crucial to hold the authorized and moral popular features of worldwide online dating. The finest put in place Latin America to find a wife/partner could be Colombia.

Many ladies from Latin America, Asia, and Eastern European countries are utilizing online platforms to hunt potential companions designed for marriage. Their very own attitudes and beliefs generally match those of Americans, and perhaps they’re loyal and offered to making a family group utilizing a foreigner. The answer to this concern depends upon what individual, therefore a guy ought to contemplate what he preferences and expects by his foreseeable future wife’s identity earlier than picking out the bride’s nation.

Simple methods to Find A Postal mail Order Star of the wedding

We can particularly level out your profile photographs, that are typically very premium quality and cost-free. TheLuckyDate is a informal courting web-site that actually works for lonely women worldwide. It has members in Western nations around the world, Asia, Latina America, and naturally, The european union. Now, this kind of neighborhood of over a 50 percent million people solely keeps growing although that isn’t a completely free European dating site. In TheLuckyDate, buyers should buy credit rating, and the worth begins by $0. twenty-two per 90 credits. Mixte March is the central online dating web site for those who want a interracial relationship. In the event you might be excited to meet a person from a special ethnic or perhaps cultural backdrop than oneself, this is totally the proper romantic relationship platform in your case.

There weren’t many ladies in the frontier, in order that they despatched text letters to chapels within the east. The guys additionally manufactured publications that received to ladies inside the east, whereas ladies despatched letters and photos of themselves to the people men. Each party maintained interaction until marriage took place and young girls moved to fulfill their new husbands. The difference is that at this moment women advertise themselves on the web.

[dritatt]

Watch mail call full episodes

#Watch mail call full episodes full#

#Watch mail call full episodes series#

#Watch mail call full episodes series#

Investigate crimes in Europe alongside the FBI Fly Team from the new series FBI: International or join the manhunt for criminals with the Fugitive Task Force from FBI: Most Wanted. These first-class agents tenaciously investigate cases of tremendous magnitude, including terrorism, organized crime and counterintelligence.ĭiscover the other teams of The FBIs. Newest to the team – and the FBI – is smart and outspoken Special Agent Tiffany Wallace, who spent six years with the NYPD and is now partner to Special Agent Stuart Scola, an Ivy League educated Wall Streeter-turned-FBI agent. The team also includes Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jubal Valentine, the nerve center of the office whose ability to easily relate to and engage with both superiors and subordinates makes him a master motivator. Overseeing them is Special Agent in Charge, Isobel Castille, who operates under intense pressure and has undeniable command authority. Her partner is Special Agent Omar Adom ‘OA’ Zidan, a West Point graduate via Bushwick who spent two years undercover for the DEA before being cherry-picked by the FBI. Two English girls, having spent their young days in acquiring knowledge.

#Watch mail call full episodes full#

Born into a multigenerational law enforcement family, Special Agent Maggie Bell commits deeply to the people she works with as well as those she protects. Watch full episodes of your favorite PBS shows, explore music and the arts, find in-depth news analysis, and more. This elite unit brings to bear all their talents, intellect and technical expertise on major cases in order to keep New York and the country safe. Track Mail Call new episodes, see when is the next episode air date, series schedule, trailer, countdown, calendar and more. Other services do offer Call of the Night as well, but the episodes aren't updated regularly, so you won't be able to watch the latest ones in every region of the world.From Emmy Award winner Dick Wolf and the team behind the “Law & Order” brand, FBI is a fast-paced drama about the inner workings of the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Only, Anthony Santini can't seem to get the mob thing right. HIDIVE is the only streaming service that allows you to watch Call of the Night on a regular basis. When Toni discovers several of his men have been scammed by a Russian mail-order bride who's escaped back to Russia, he decides to send his troublesome nephew, Anthony Santini to bring back the girl and the money. Where can I find a copy of Call of the Night Episode 9? The girls accept Yamori, who promises that he will fall in love with Nazuna no matter how long he takes. Yamori continues to fight off the vampires, finally yelling that Nazuna will conquer him, just as she arrives. Seri Kiky, the blonde vampire, tells Nazuna to refrain from flirting with him, but she insists that she wants to, and she does, enticing her to do so. However, he rejects everyone's advances for Nazuna. Included: the history of the Lockheed C-141 Starlifter a reunion of former Vietnam War POWs. Skip to main content Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. Lee Ermey visits the National Museum of the United States Air Force at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. The one he chooses will make him fall in love and convert him. Episodes of the old-time radio AFRS musical variety program Mail Call. Nico Hirata, Midori Kohakobe, Hatsuka Suzushiro, and Kabura Honda appear at the top of a building, where three other vampires are. After she tells him that she is bored with her current life, Yamori attempts to comfort her by hugs him, promising him to take all of his blood. Yamori is approached by a skinny blonde woman who flirts with her and teases her. We are therefore going to give you a recap of Episode 8 in order to prepare you for what may come next: Call of the Night Episode 9 preview and spoilersĪt this moment, nothing about the call of the night episode 9's plot is known. The previous episode aired on August 26, 2022.Ĭall of the Night Episode 9's official release date is shown below, indicating when the episode will be released, depending on where you live in the world. The episode's title is not known at the time of writing this article. The release date and time for Call of the Night Episode 9 are set.įrom what we know at this moment, Episode 9 of Call of the Night will be released on September 2, 2022. On Fuji TV's noitaminA programming block, we'll tell you all you need to know about the upcoming Episode 9 of Call of the Night, which will be released on September 2, 2022. Yofukashi no Uta, also known as Call of the Night, has been serialized in Shgakukan's Shnen Sunday magazine since August 28, 2019.

[singlerussianwomen-blog]

How much do you know about Russian marriage customs?

Different countries have their own unique wedding customs. So what are the marriage customs in Russia? Small make up for you to sort out some, you are welcome to supplement!

Bread and salt

At the couple's house, the groom's parents prepared bread and salt for the couple to taste. Traditionally, the bride and groom bite on the bread at the same time. Bread symbolizes wealth and prosperity, while salt protects them from evil influences. Guests scatter rose petals at the newlyweds and toss COINS and grains like wheat and rice at their feet, symbols of prosperity and fertility.

Broken bottles

At the wedding, after the newlyweds drink champagne, very natural and unrestrained throw. The wine cup falls to the ground, year after year peace! It is said that Russians believe that the more pieces there are, the happier they will be.

Tie champagne bottle

Wedding witnesses tie two champagne bottles together and give them to the couple, wishing them happiness and a baby.

Cover the veil

In the middle of the night, the bride will stand in the middle of the dance floor and hang her veil over any girl's head while blindfolded. The girl who wins the lottery will soon find the right man and become the next bride.

The princess held

According to custom, Russian ancestors believed that the act of the bridegroom's princess holding the bride was powerful and could scare away the bad things, and symbolized that the bridegroom would protect the bride from any harm in the future.

The bridegroom and the princess carried the bride into the house. Russian main order brides may bury her head in the bridegroom's chest, with shame, or look at the bridegroom affectionately, or make friends with relatives and friends, express the joy that she cannot hide.

Concentric padlock

The bride and groom go to the bridge to lock the locks engraved with the names of both sides on the bridge pillars, or hang them on a tree, symbolizing the eternal union, grow old together. How many people in front of the bridge make that good promise, a lock carrying too many tears and sincere desire.

Pass the family stove

It is a very warm and grand custom that the mother of the bride lights candles for the couple and passes them on to her daughter. The ceremony symbolizes the warmth, happiness and harmony of the family. From then on, the couple will jointly run a new family. Sometimes the ceremony goes like this: the couple lights candles held by their parents.

After watching these, is the heart a little bit tempted to see the Russian wedding?

Travel to Russia, and you'll have the chance to meet Russian newlyweds on the streets or in parks who take wedding photos or have a simple wedding. Come on, let's go~

[hotvampireadjacent]

Oh my fucking god why the fuck did I get an ad that was a stones throw away from being a Russian main order bride ????????????

I was putting on something to nap and hear the ad talking about “meeting beautiful young women from Russia,  Slovenia, and Ukraine is easy.” and I jolted awake like “did I hear that right in the year 2022??? “

This is just “sexy young Eastern European woman want to meet you click here” how is this allowed????????

“Have you noticed that Slavic woman have become more and more popular I mean they’re everywhere”????

[kiriti-savyasachin]

Formal writerblr introduction!

Hi!

This is the revival of a defunct writerblr, formerly under the url @ambidextrousarcher​, which is my main blog right now. Before I proceed into my usual long rambles about my WIP’s (which is kind of the point of this blog), let me introduce myself first.

Personal info: I go by Nila. I’m a 23 year old Indian medical student. Writing is both a hobby and a catharsis for me, channeling out my emotions, both positive and negative. I am also an avid reader, who tends to get lost in research more often than not, and an amateur singer.

[Image ID: A white, square piece of paper in the center of a black background, a golden satin ribbon rippling across it at top-left, a pen with a black matte body and a golden cap, capped at the behind, with the golden nib visible, leaning slanted at bottom-left of the paper. In the middle of the white paper square, the words ‘Writerblr Intro’ are written in marine blue, flowing, script. End ID]

Writing Background: I started writing in earnest when I was 8, for a short story competition. My first story was a sci-fi story about cloning, which was one of the winning pieces of the competition in question.

At 13, I started work on a historical novel about the Russian Revolution, which I discontinued when I realized the inadequacy of my research. Unfortunately, that novel is still in its research phase.

At 18, I started to work on my most beloved mythological WIP, Antraatman, which is still in the process of being written.

My WIP’s

Note: Most of these works are based on the Mahabharata, Indian mythical history, and the interpretations of the characters I write about are mine alone. Every reader is requested to respect the same. In case of disagreements, polite discussions are always welcome, although I request each of you to refrain from abuse, bullying, anon hate and thinly veiled blame games, due to such disagreements. In return, I can promise you that in spite of any such issues, I will be polite and not malign you in public, either.

That said, here we are with the first and foremost of my works:

1.      Antraatman: My first proper novel-length piece of writing, Antraatman is a first-person retelling of the main story of the Mahabharata through the eyes of one of its main protagonists and a hero in his own right, Arjun. It is currently at Draupadi (another of the three main protagonists) Swayamvara.

*Swayamvara/Swayamvar- Self-choice ceremony aka a ceremony where a bride chooses her groom.

It is written in first person PoV, the prologue in Pritha’s (Arjun’s mother’s) point of view, and the rest of the book in Arjun’s own.

2.     A King’s Fortune: Based on the AU idea of ‘What if Arjun, the third-born Pandava, was instead the first-born?’, it is a work that tracks the butterfly effects of the switching of order of birth between Yudhisthir, Arjun’s eldest brother, and Arjun himself, written in third person PoV. First chapter is available on Ao3. See below for the link.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25716493

3.     Vith Vithi Cha: Sanskrit for ‘Lost and Found’, this work explores the possibility of Arjun managing to save his son from an untimely death in the Kurukshetra war (the major war in the Mahabharata), written in first person alternating PoV. See below for the link.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25971619

4.     Child of Prophecy: A work which ventures rather strictly into fanfiction territory, this is one of my fond universes, where the world of Harry Potter and the Mahabharata, two of my favourite literary works in terms of worlds, are fused with each other. In other words, the characters of the Mahabharata are in the world of Harry Potter, creating entirely new story possibilities. Here, too, the focal character, as in all the works discussed above, is Arjun, and the story, bar a short prologue written in his mother’s first person PoV, is his first person PoV. See below for the link.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25996552

I’ll make proper introduction posts of all these works soon!

Thank you for giving your time to my works. You can reach me at my main blog, @ambidextrousarcher​.

[jeannereames]

I'm really, really obsessed with Roxanne, despite us knowing nearly nothing about her. Her life is just this perfect, horrible tragedy, and since we know so little about who she really was, it's interesting trying to decipher how she went from a teenaged political marriage to surviving and being successor-in-the-name-of-her-son. Like, how she got on with Olympia's, what she thought of Alexander. I really wish we had more information about her, she's just so intriguing. Jane Rochford of the Hellenistic age for sure!

I wish we know more as well! If you have not looked at Beth Carney's Women and Monarchy in Macedonia, Beth addresses Roxane a bit there. But trying to pick out the Plutrachian Romance plus anti-Asian attitudes in our historians in order to figure out much about her as an historical figure is virtually impossible. :-(

There have been a couple historical novels featuring her, one called Roxana by Helene Moreau published originally in 3 parts in the '60s, then reissued as one long novel by Playboy in the early '70s (that should tell you something). It's not very good, but it's there, and she's not presented as a bad person. In Stephanie Thornton's The Conqueror's Wife, she's a bitch, one of three main female voices. The other two are Drypetis (yeah, H.'s wife) and Thessalonike, ATG's sister. It's a...strange book. Not as classically a Romance like Roxana, but I had issues with several of the choices she made, and her research into Zoroastrianism was kinda hit-and-miss. In neither novel is Alexander well presented, btw. Hephaistion is nicer, and in the second, he's the Hero of the Romance. (snort)

There have been a few others, but all seem to be self-published and my experience with self-published ATG novels is not good, on either the history or the writing quality fronts.

If you're a writer, maybe you should take her on? Tell her story. As I said, it's hard to detach her from the romantic threads, but Beth has made a lot of headway researching women. And there's been more work of late on the Achaemenid court, etc. Maria Brosius is a good start (Women in Achaemenid Persia; History of Achaemenid Persia). Marek Jan Olbrycht is a bit too into the old "fushion" theories, but he also has a fair bit about the Iranian parts of Alexander's court in article form (his book on ATG is now kinda old, and in Polish). Not sure about work on Sogdiana itself, but plumb the bibliographies of Brosius and Olbrycht. I fear much of it would be in Russian, but there may be some in French or English.

Depending, you may be able to find a publisher. Women's fiction is intrested in historical retakes like that. It's part of how Thornton got hers sold (she routinely writes romantic historical fiction from a female perspective). You might also look at Elisabeth Storr's series on Rome/Etruria for an idea of how to approach it. She tells a story of a Roman bride sent to Veii as part of a peace negotiation. She winds up preferring Veii (and loving her new husband), but it takes a while. And it's well-done (imo), although I preferred the first novel.

[noosphe-re]

‘The Future of the Future’ by JG Ballard

One of the most surprising but barely noticed events of the period since the Second World War has been the life and death of the space age. Almost twenty years ago to the day, 4 October 1957, I switched on the BBC news and heard for the first time the radio call-sign of Sputnik I as it circled the earth above our heads. Its urgent tocsin seemed to warn us of the arrival of a new epoch. As a novice science fiction writer, I listened to this harbinger of the space age with strong misgivings — already I was certain, though without the slightest evidence, that the future of science fiction, and for that matter of popular consciousness in general, lay not in outer space but in what I had already christened `inner space', in a world increasingly about to be remade by the mind.

None the less, I fully expected that the impact of the space age would be immediate and all-pervasive — from fashion to industrial design, from the architecture of airports and department stores to the ways in which we furnished our homes. I took for granted that the spin-off of the US and Russian space programmes would transfotm everything in our lives and produce an extrovert society as restlessly curious about the external world as Renaissance Europe.

In fact, nothing remotely like this occurred. Public interest in the space flights of the 1960s was rarely more than lukewarm (think, by contrast, of our powerful emotional involvement with the death of President Kennedy and the Vietnam war), and the effects on everyday life have been virtually nil. How many of us could name, apart from Armstrong himself, a single one of the men who have walked on the Moon, an extraordinary achievement that should have left a profound trace upon the collective psyche? Yet most of us could rattle off without a moment's thought the names of lone transatlantic sailors — Chichester, Chay Blyth, Tabarly, Clare Francis ... Looking back, we can see that far from extending for ever into the future, the space age lasted for scarcely fifteen years: from Sputnik I and Gagarin's first flight in 1961, to the last Skylab mission in 1974 — and the first splashdown, significantly, not to be shown on television. After a casual glance at the sky, people turned around and went indoors. Even the test flights taking place at present of the space shuttle Enterprise — named, sadly, after the spaceship in Star Trek — seem little more than a limp by-product of a television fantasy, More and more, the space programmes have become the last great period piece of the twentieth century, as magnificent but as out of date as the tea-clipper and the steam locomotive.

During the past fifteen years the strongest currents in our lives have been flowing in the opposite direction altogether, carrying us ever deeper into the exploration not of outer but of inner space. This investigation of every conceivable byway of sensation and imagination has shown itself in a multitude of guises — in mysticism and meditation, encounter groups and fringe religions, in the use of drugs and biofeedback devices — all of which attempt to project the interior realm of the psyche on to the humdrum world of everyday reality and externalize the limitless possibilities of the dream. So far, though, the techniques available have tended to be extremely dangerous (drugs such as LSD and heroin), physically uncomfortable (the contortions of classical yoga), or mentally exhausting (the psychological assault course of the suburban encounter group, with its staged confrontations and tantrums, its general hyperventilation of the emotions).

Meanwhile, far more sophisticated devices have begun to appear on the scene, above all, video systems and micro-computers adapted for domestic use. Together these will achieve what I take to be the apotheosis of all the fantasies of late twentieth-century man — the transformation of reality into a TV studio, in which we can simultaneously play out the roles of audience, producer and star.

In the dream house of the year 2000, Mrs Tomorrow will find herself living happily inside her own head. Walls, floors and ceilings will be huge, unbroken screens on which will be projected a continuous sound and visual display of her pulse and respiration, her brain-waves and blood pressure. The delicate quicksilver loom of her nervous system as she sits at her dressing table, the sudden flush of adrenaline as the telephone rings, the warm arterial tides of emotion as she arranges lunch with her lover, all these will surround her with a continuous light show. Every aspect of her home will literally reflect her character and personality, a visible image of her inner self to be overlaid and enhanced by those of her husband and children, relatives and friends. A marital tiff will resemble the percussive climax of The Rite of Spring, while a dinner party (with each of the guests wired into the circuitry) will be embellished by a series of frescoes as richly filled with character and incident as a gallery of Veroncses. By contrast, an off day will box her into a labyrinth of Francis Bacons, a premonition of spring surround her with the landscapes of Constable, an amorous daydream transform the walls of her bathroom into a seraglio worthy of Ingres.

All this, of course, will be more electronic wallpaper, the background to the main programme in which each of us will be both star and suppotting player. Every one of our actions during the day, across the entire spectrum of domestic life, will be instantly recorded on video-tape. In the evening we will sit back to scan the rushes, selected by a computer trained to pick out only our best profiles, our wittiest dialogue, our most affecting expressions filmed through the kindest filters, and then stitch these together into a heightened re-enactment of the day. Regardless of our place in the family pecking order, each of us within the privacy of our own rooms will be the star in a continually unfolding domestic saga, with parents, husbands, wives and children demoted to an appropriate supporting role.

Free now to experiment with the dramatic possibilities of our lives, we will naturally conduct our relationships and modify our behaviour towards each other with more than half an eye to their place in the evening's programme. When we visit our friends we will be immediately co-opted into a half-familiar play whose plot-lines may well elude us. Even within our own marriages we will frequently find ourselves assigned roles which we will act out with no rehearsal time and only the scantiest idea of the script — on reflection, not an unfamiliar situation. So these programmes will tirelessly unfold; a personalized Crossroads or Coronation Street perhaps recast in the style of Strindberg or Stoppard, six million scenes from a marriage.

However fanciful all this may seem, this transformation of our private lives with the aid of video-systems and domestic computers is already at hand. Micro-computers are now being installed in thousands of American homes, where they provide video-games and do simple household accounts. Soon, though, they will take over other functions, acting as major domo, keeper of finances, confidant and marriage counsellor. `Can you afford the Bahamas this year, dear? Yes ... if you divorce your husband.' The more expensive and sophisticated computers will be bought precisely to fulfil this need, each an éminence grise utterly devoted to us, aware of our strengths and weaknesses, dedicated to exploring every possibility of our private lives, suggesting this or that marital strategy, a tactical infidelity here, an emotional game-plan there, a realignment of affections, a radical change of wardrobe, lifestyle, sex itself, all costed down to the last penny and timed to the nearest second, its print-outs primed with air tickets, hotel reservations and divorce petitions.

Thus we may see ourselves at the turn of the century, each of us the star of a continuous television drama, soothed by the music of our own brain-waves, the centre of an infinite private universe. Will it occur to us, perhaps, that there is still one unnecessary intruder in this personal paradise — other people? Thanks to the video-tape library, and the imminent wonders of holistic projection, their physical presence may soon no longer be essential to our lives. Without difficulty, we can visualize a future where people will never meet at all, except on the television screen. Childhood, marriage, parenthood, even the few jobs that still need to be done, will all be conducted within the home.

Conceived by artificial insemination, brought up within the paediatric viewing cubicle, we will conduct even our courtships on television, shyly exchanging footage of ourselves, and perhaps even slipping away on a clandestine weekend (that is, watching the same travelogues together). Thanks to the split-screen technique, our marriage will be witnessed by hundreds of friends within their own homes, and pre-recorded film taken within our living rooms will show us moving down the aisle against a cathedral backdrop. Our wedding night will be a masterpiece of tastefully erotic cinema, the husband's increasingly bold zooms countered by his bride's blushing fades and wipes, climaxing in the ultimate close-up. Years of happy marriage will follow, unblemished by the hazards of physical contact, and we need never know whether our spouse is five miles away from us, or five hundred, or on the dark side of the sun. The spherical mirror forms the wall of our universe, enclosing us for ever at its heart ... — JG Ballard, The Future of the Future, Vogue, 1977 (A User’s Guide to the Millennium)

[dissident-vedder]

- once upon a december ii ( 𝐄.𝐕. )

ADD YOURSELF TO MY TAGLIST!

anastasia!au. 1900s!au. after [y/n]’s narrow escape from the alexander palace, she lost most, if not all, memory of her childhood, only remembering the tiny details that would help her later on in life. this is the second part of a duology.

THIS FIC CONTAINS a generalized russian accent; this story is both of my own creation and inspirations (listed below); mentions of death.

A/N - layout by @adoresobs​!  the description of the dress i’m going for the coronation clothing and crown is empress sissi. the wedding dress is also by her. i understand that she’s from the 1800s, but i just love her style. i also took the wedding traditions from an article, so if you are from russia and know about the traditions and see anything wrong, please just contact me and i’ll fix it! also, this may suck, idk.

INSPIRATIONS -  @zodiyack​ ‘s princess. anastasia (1997).

looking at herself in the mirror, [y/n] eyed the large sapphire necklace sitting on the supple skin of her chest, the heavy weight of her long hair evenly distributed around her head. the corset was tighter than usual, but she had grown used to it from the long training hours she was forced to endure. the blue eyes of the man she had seen again haunted her day, feeling them watch her when she stood in the same room with him, her heart beating wildly as she tried to shake off the feeling of hopelessness. she wanted to talk to him again, wanted to see what he was like after years of not being with him, wanted to have him hold her as he whispered that everything was alright, wanted his smell linger on her clothes. 

she didn’t notice the tear in her eye until it hit her cheek, her hand reaching up to immediately dab it away, not wanting to destroy the makeup on the handmaids took her time on, taking a deep breath in order to calm her heartbeat. she stood up, ready for her wedding.

eddie remembered when he asked her about the traditions of a russian wedding, wondering if they were the same as american counterparts, but quickly realizing that russian weddings tend to be grand and exciting.

“our marriage would only be legal if we register it at the zapis aktov grazhdanskogo sostoyaniya,” [y/n] had told him one night. “usually people do it before the ceremony so they have more time for the fun things. and at the ceremony, crowns will be placed on our heads. the crown is usually placed in by the priest, and is usually held in place by family or friends while we stand on top of a rose colored cloth. then games are played. It’s all very fun and can actually last a couple of days.”

the first day of the wedding was the actual ceremony.

eyeing the man at the end of the aisle, the now tsarevna [y/n] tomanov held her uncle’s hand, a smile broadening acros her lips. eddie seemed a little nervous, not liking the idea of being in front of such a large crowd, but knew he had to begin getting used to it as the impending knowledge of him being tsar of russia loomed over him like a dark cloud. he was a simple american man stuck in an expansive country as the love he held for their tsarevna kept him there. she had given him a manor home in both england and the united states, an escape from royal life so that he may go and clear his head. 

but not only was there those manors; they had the livadia palace in the crimea, which [y/n] and her family had spent their summers in, the winter palace that was their main residence, and many other palaces that had been the homes to her ancestors. the doors open, revealing the tsarevna in her beautiful white gown, dark green trim showing all of the layers of the skirt, the neckline, the hem of the sleeves, and the sash loosely wrapped around her right shoulder, the rest landing softly on the skirt of her dress. soft floral patterns lined around the green trim, complementing her features perfectly. eddie gasped as he watched his bride come closer, a large smile spreading across her lips as she stared at him as if he were the only thing in the world, the only rope that tied her to this place. 

the traditional vows were said, crowns were placed on their heads (which eddie found out they were tsar nicholas ii’s and tsarevna alexandra’s imperial jewels) and the ornamental glasses were smashed (another thing that was counted to be luck for a long-lasting marriage), and the two spouses followed the priest around the lectern (thrice) as they held each other’s hands tightly. 

the second day of the wedding consisted of a roadtrip.

they visited many important landmarks, such as visting the peter vassilevsky island to touch the 4000-year-old egyptian statues and stone griffons, or to the new hermitage portico and rub the toes of the marble atlanti statues, all for good luck on their marriage. “you know i love you, right?” eddie whispered into [y/n]’s hair, carresing her bare shoulder as they cuddled in the master bedroom of the imperial train, her warm skin pressed up against his. 

snow drifted slowly to the ground, covering the grass in a cold, white blanket, reminding you of the lullaby your grandmother used to sing to you when you were much younger. “i know,” she pressed a light kiss to his lips, her thumb brushing against his cheekbone, forehead pressing against his. this was something you longed for all your years spent in that orphanage. 

someone to love, hold, cherish. 

“and a song, someone sings once upon a december,” eddie’s resonant voice sang from the comfort of olivia’s room, brushing away the small tendrils of hair that stuck to the side of her face. “someone holds me safe and warm,” you continued, putting your chin on eddie’s shoulder. so many years had passed since the two of you were married, and many began speculating if either of you were infertile, most of which directed at you, all because you were a female. but luckily, olivia came along one hot june morning, screaming as you cried from your spot in the bed. it had been such an intensive labor and now she was here. “horses prance through a silver storm,” eddie’s voice joined yours, his hand holding your cheek softly. “figures dancing gracefully across my memory.”

“someone holds me safe and warm,” you wrap your arms around eddie, holding him tight against your body, eddie moving his hand to take yours in his, his free hand grabbing onto olivia’s. “horses prance through a silver storm,” the days of you and your family going on horseback rides during the heavy snowfalls flashed through your mind; it was one of the best feelings you ever experienced in your early life. the cold wind biting at your cheeks, the laughter and smiles passed around warmed your insides. “figures dancing gracefully across my memory,” the balls your father threw, the many people wearing heavy gowns and sparkling jewelry dancing around the floor, skirts skimming the floor and coattails flying up. 

“far away, long ago, glowing dim as an ember,” you were reminded of your time in the american orphanage, the troublesome nights of the small flashes of memory, the longing for a life you couldn’t remember. “things my heart used to know, things it yearns to remember.”

“and a song someone sings,” you looked out the window, placing a hand on your growing belly. “once upon a december.”

TAGLIST:

@stateofloveandvedder​ @state-of-love-and-lust​ @honeysympathy​ @grossgold​ @sea-sxns​ @d-arknecessities

[frustrated-writer-skyeknight]

My main Fanfic squad, but as F.r.i.e.n.d.s (so S.q.u.a.d i guess)

Chandler - Hiccup

Monica - Jack

Ross - Jim

Rachel - Dimitri

Joey - Astrid

Phoebe - Jamie

Scene One

Jack: You know I just don't get it. I mean, I didn't plan to quote 'ruin my marriage' unquote shortly after having one. I don't see why I'm the only one getting all the beef when it's Elsa who wanted the divorce to happen so soon.

Jamie: I mean... Mom still doesn't believe you had no idea she was a lesbian.

Jack: No, no. See, the plan was...

Hiccup: There was a plan for this?

Jack: The plan was... After a year, Elsa would file the divorce because 'Jack isn't suitable for marriage life' like I also kept telling our parents. Then, I finally come out to them as gay because 'this experience traumatized me from liking women' instead of saying I've been that way the whole time. Now turns out, she wants a divorce cause she's the gay one.

Hiccup: So you did plan to ruin it anyway?

Jamie: Then, tell mom and dad that.

Jack: I would, but it's Elsa's call and she doesn't really want to come out yet.

Hiccup: So, what are you going to do now?

Jack: Well, for the meantime, I'd be happy not to deal with any talks of my marriage or divorce for now.

Just then, Dimitri walks in during a hot stuffy day, wearing a tuxedo, of all things...

Hiccup: Okay, how about someone else's?

Dimitri: *goes up to the counter* Excuse me, hi. Uh, I'm looking for someone? I'm told they might be here.

Jack: Dimitri?

Dimitri: *turns around* Jack! Thank god. Nevermind, I've found him.

Jack: Why are you dressed that way? Wait, did you commute all the way over here in that?

Dimitri: I don't even have bills that aren't in rubles. I walked.

Jack: On a hot July heat wave? How are you alive?

Dimitri: Man, I don't know. I wish I was dead. I'm not having the best day.

Barista: Can I get you anything?

Jack: Iced tea. Grande size, thanks.

Jack and Dimitri move to the couch and the white haired man started introducing him to his friends...

Jack: Of course, you know Jim.

Dimitri: *elbows Jack roughly*

Jim: *raises a brow*

Jack: ...and you remember my brother, Jamie?

Dimitri: Of course, hey Jamie. Still think my grandpa is the boogeyman?

Jamie: He looks like a skeleton who sold his soul to add flesh over it. Boogeyman is being polite, in his case.

Dimitri snickers in response as he took a spot on the lounge couch while he waited for the iced tea ordered for him...

Jack: So are you actually going to tell us what happened or should I buy you a vowel too?

Dimitri: Okay... So an hour before my wedding, it literally dawned on me I was going to get married to Anastasia Romanov. And it got me thinking... Do I really want to spend the rest of my life as Dimitri Romanov?

Astrid: Huh, nice. Usually, the bride takes the groom's last name. Glad society's evolved enough to let it happen the other way.

Dimitri: *shrugs* Her last name carries more prestige. Which brings me to my next point... The luxurious life is appealing and all but I don't think it's really worth the boredom of putting up with the entitled rich highlanders in the monthly banquets. At least, that's not a life I want.

Hiccup: See, even the only ones who say that are those rich enough to afford saying it.

Astrid: Like you can talk. Your dad's a lawyer. You lived in a big house in the Suburbs in your childhood.

Dimitri: Anyway, long story short, I ran off from my wedding. And I went to where I knew Jack lived, but he wasn't at his flat. So this big guy wilting a piece of wood on the hallway told me I might find him here and you're the only one I know in the city that didn't come to the wedding.

Jack: ... I wasn't invited to the wedding.

Dimitri: What? But mother told me she sent you an invitation.

Jack: And you remember exactly how your folks feel about me, right?

Dimitri: Well, uh, my mother at least seemed convincing that she was making more attempts in being open...

Scene two

Hiccup: Ever notice that the most popular KDramas usually involve love triangles, petty jealousy, and cliché main guy heartthrobs?

Astrid: Maybe the ones you watch? Kingdom isn't like that.

Hiccup: Yeah, but the have the overused zombie infestation plot to make up for it.

Jamie: When will you guys just watch TV shows for their purpose?

Astrid: And what's that?

Jamie: Entertainment.

Hiccup: Well, when it's actually doing its purpose I guess.

Meanwhile, Dimitri was on the phone while Jim went to get a snack from the fridge....

Dimitri: I'm fine, uncle Vlad. And I'll feel much better if I wasn't hearing dad cussing like a sailor in the background. You know what, just put him on and let's get this over with...

Jack pauses his phone streaming Netflix before they all turned to not-so-subtly eavesdrop on Dimitri, even Jim stares at the Russian while nibbling on a muffin...

Dimitri: Yeah, it's m─dad no─Well, if you stop cursing my existence long enough to let me explain─Is mom there? Cause she'd be rubbing soap on your mouth by now!

Jim: Huh, dad troubles. *walks back to the den* Now I see why the Russian ran.

Hiccup: ... In your case, your dad ran though...

Jim: This muffin could be used as a lethal murder weapon, Haddock.

Dimitri: Znayete chto, k chertu eto, ya prosto skazhu eto. I'm gay, and always have been since forever. Even Anya knows!

Jack: Called it.

Hiccup: He was your roommate at college. Of course you called it.

Dimitri: Yeah well, tell mama I love her but screw you pops. It's my life, and I'm gonna live it the way I want...... Well, maybe I don't need your roof to return to. I'll just stay here....... Hey, he may be bottom feeder Jack to you, but he's my friend bottom feeder Jack!

Jack: I guess we established I'm still bottom feeder Jack.

Dimitri: It's my decision now, dad....... Well, maybe I don't want to keep my inherita─ No, no! I said maybe! *face falls and places the phone back on the counter and slumps on a dining room chair* Well, now I'm cut off. Shostakovitch... I don't know if the heatwave is just hitting now, or if I'm having a panic attack...

Jack snaps his fingers and went through the kitchen drawers to take out a paper bag and handed it over to Dimitri, telling him to breathe in and out of it...

Jack: Okay, just take calming breaths buddy. Calm, calm...

Dimitri: *breathing quickly, narrowing his eyes at Jack*

Jack: C'mon, don't look at me like that. Just... You know, think of less stressful thoughts. Think happy thoughts.

Dimitri: *inhales* I am *exhales* drawing a blank... Little help?

Jamie: 🎶Think of a wonderful thought. Any merry little thought... Think of Christmas, think of snow. Think of sleigh bells off you go!🎶

Dimitri: *throws off paper bag* Not like that.

Astrid: *shrugs* Made me happy.

Scene three

Dimitri: So, uh, listen James....

Jim: Dude, Jim is fine.

Dimitri: Right... So, I don't know if you knew this. But back in High school, I had a secret crush on you.

Jim: Oh, I heard of it. Didn't really think it was true, though.

Dimitri: Really? Why not?

Jim: Seriously? With practically everyone and their literal mothers going on about how you were gonna marry Romanov after college? Case in point, what you almost did hours ago. I thought they were just messing with me.

Dimitri: You did? Uh, so... I was wondering... Maybe I could take you out some time? Like... On a date? I mean, after the whole... Runaway groom thing dies down?

Jim: Well, we'll see.

Znayete chto, k chertu eto, ya prosto skazhu eto. - You know what to hell with this I'm just gonna say it.

Used google translate

[michel-tanguy]

New Post has been published on Michel Tanguy

New Post has been published on http://micheltanguy.com/%e2%ad%90%ef%b8%8f-easternhoneys-evaluation-pricing-features-interface-december-2023/

⭐️ Easternhoneys Evaluation: Pricing, Features, Interface December 2023

Content material

Chinese Language Brides to be By Metropolis

How Have Russian Man Fly Via Europe To Lax Without having Passport Or Ticket?

When you upgrade from free membership to premium, make certain that you get worth for your cash. How a lot does utilizing the most effective Asian on-line relationship sites cost? Let’s check out the two examples of pricing policies on a variety of the finest platforms to fulfill Asian folks and begin relationships, EasternHoneys and TheLuckyDate. Matt Seymour is a courting business skilled with over a decade of experience teaching singles, reviewing relationship mail order wife India apps, and analyzing trends throughout the trade. There are lots of articles on the market saying that dating as an Asian man could additionally be tougher than it’s for others.

Many developing countries are likely to battle with points that make marriage and pleased family life difficult.

Different courting platforms range by method of pricing insurance policies.

Adam Lyons is called one of the worlds main Dating Coaches.

We lined important features like background, pricing, and person evaluations to ensure you can make an knowledgeable choice.

However, before you even get to Asia, you’ll need to pay for a visa, which may cost a fairly penny. Not to mention all the time spent away from work, and the expenses of the trip. Add all this to the fact that making a trip like that may be exhausting, plus, you won’t get to spend as much time as you’d like. In the tip, it may be simply higher to strive a relationship web site. Asians worth group – belonging to a bunch of folks that care about you – a whole lot.

It’s a world relationship web site focusing on ladies from Asian countries. Thanks to the profile high quality and abundance, you’ll have a fantastic vary of choices. The web site does its finest to supply a chance to narrow down your attainable matches with searching instruments. Or you possibly can visit the part of Mailbox the place you can see who messaged or who despatched requests for a chat. Or go to a mailbox the place you can write a message to someone or obtain a letter from your fan.

Chinese Language Brides Simply by Metropolis

You can depend on their dependable support system everytime you need help. Within 5 minutes, you can create your free account and start shopping potential matches. The course of contains answering eight questions to construct your profile, overlaying particulars like location, body type, education, and ethnicity.

How Did Russian Gentleman Fly Via Europe To Lax Without Passport Or Ticket?

The brand promises a « fresh-from-the-clinic complexion » after use. The set additionally comes with a Goat Milk Cleanser and +Retinol Vitamin C Moisturizer Cream. Give the girl in your life her morning cup of joe in fashion. Help her hydrate, plump and soothe with Tatcha’s celeb-loved skincare.

Easternhoneys Review: Options, Costs & Extra

Then, the algorithm will find probably the most suitable on-line communities for you – usually right close to you! You can be taught tons about somebody online, but you have not any thought if there can be adequate chemistry for an actual romance to build up except persons meet nasal to nostril space. There are not so many gentlemen who can sincerely deny the bodily attraction of Asian magnificence. An Asian girl often wears her hair naturally, unless she wants to appear to be her favourite actress from Hollywood. But even when she wears some fancy coiffure, she goes to take care that her hair stays wholesome. One extra Asian women attribute that a Western gentleman cannot ignore is the eyes.

So, to find a Japanese spouse easily, ensure you are type, caring and loving. We arrange Online Meetings for you with our selected female members. This web site is a review platform designed to help customers make alternatives concerning numerous services. We all do not are likely to provide you with any ensures besides information according to our private consumer experience. Don’t invite a Japanese woman to your home on your first date – you’re on the lookout for a bride, not a woman for the night, right?

Hose who want the best experience have to upgrade their membership plan to send limitless messages, use advanced search filters, and kind their matches. Asian Melodies is considered one of the preferred niche Asian relationship apps and websites – now, it has around 500,000 members worldwide. Its friendly interface and lively users encourage you to spend time right here. The primary communication tool is an prompt chat where you possibly can send messages with emojis and stickers and share photos, movies, and audio content. Is a distinct segment on-line courting platform, which implies it accepts only Asian singles and Western singles who’d like to meet and date them.

Many questions during the registration course of, but there may be the chance to skip them. The credit score system is simple, and I respect the transparency. I’ve been capable of talk freely with none hidden prices.

AsiaMe is essentially the most superior Asian dating site obtainable right now. It has a video chat, a voice call function, and a lot of other services out there to premium users. What’s more, it’s also a perfect option for cell daters, particularly Android customers. Besides, this courting web site provides many free options, including a detailed search, reading users’ profiles, and viewing their photos and movies. When folks search for Asian dating apps, they’re typically on the lookout for two things—Asian singles of their space or Asian singles overseas.

[musicainextenso]

For this week of Russian Composers, I decided to focus on Russian music that has a fascination with the “fantastic”, with magic and Romantic folk tales and other cultures, and how that influenced orchestral writing. The forefront of this style of orchestral music was Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, who ironically developed this Russian style through works that were about places other than Russia. For this suite, he was inspired by tales from One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, and used its framing narrative to connect four symphonic poems of contrasting character. Scheherezade, the main character of the tale, is represented by the solo violin and a delicate wavering theme. Originally, Rimsky-Korsakov was going to go with more abstract titles for each movement [“Prelude”, “Ballade”, “Adagio” and “Finale” respectively] but his musical colleagues suggested he keep some hints of the program. So, each movement in a way “tells the story” of a different tale, all strung together by Scheherezade’s theme. The frame narrative is about a Sultan, a misogynist whose distrust and hatred of women leads him to kill every woman he marries after their first night together. Scheherezade is chosen to be the next bride, so in order to escape this violent fate, she tells him a story, ending on a cliff hanger just as the sun comes up, leading him to keep her alive so he can hear the rest of the tale the next night. She does this every night, for a thousand more nights, until in the end the Sultan recants his vow for he has truly fallen in love with Scheherezade. It is a really dark and disturbing story, but we have to remember that it is ancient Middle Eastern poetry. The work opens with a bold and growling theme from the brass, the Sultan’s theme, which acts as the curtain raiser, before Scheherezade is introduced by the solo violin. Her theme bleeds into the first story, Sinbad’s ship. Both themes are morphed around a gentle swaying pattern in the orchestra, like waves in the sea. The music here is gorgeous, constantly modulating on an ‘octatonic scale’ which gives off this feeling of wonder and discovery. At the end, Scheherezade’s theme returns, slightly varied in a short cadenza that acts as a recitative toward the next tale, the Kalandar Prince, which is a set of variations, mostly focusing on taking the melody through different moods and orchestrations. It builds up in intensity, and ending in a thunderous coda, it takes us right into the third movement, the young Prince and Princess, a lusciously written love duet. The last movement, the Festival in Baghdad, opens with another Scheherezade cadenza before breaking out in a rowdy dance, which starts to incorporate ideas from earlier in the suite. It ends with a great crash, the sinking of Sinbad’s ship, and then we drift out of the reverie into “real life”, where the Sultan’s theme is transformed, and Scheherezade sighs in peace, now free from the threat of death.

Stay tuned for more Russian composers this week on musicainextenso!

- Nick O., Guest Editor

[theawkwardterrier]

Chill Book Recs

It’s a tense time (obvious) and for all those who are social distancing (which should be as many people as possible!!) as well as those who are out there keeping essential services running and caring for those who need it (thank you!!), sometimes we need a chance to relax with a book that’s somewhat low stakes. So I’ve put together some of my faves which are light and funny (and, not coincidentally, often romantic and/or tropey - not sorry!) for you to download as ebooks or audiobook, or order from a bookstore (especially recommend that you check if your local indies are still shipping, or look at Biblio, or the Bookstore at the End of the World collective). Not saying that all the selections below are without obstacle or issue, but I’ve tried to keep it pretty upbeat and noted what I can. Feel free to add your own faves like this, and happy reading!

(Sorry for the abundance of parentheses.)

(No, I’m not.)

Analee, In Real Life by Janelle Milanes (fake dating, MMORPG, Latinx MCs, own voices, family drama, YA)

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins (boarding school, friends to romance, Paris, cancer cw, YA)

The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge by M.T. Anderson (humor, fantasy, enemies to friends, fantasy political intrigue, illustrations, confusion!, middle grade)

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell (semi epistolary, company approved spying, early 2000s, newspaper, best friendships, Getting Yourself Together, very good food descriptions, miscarriage cw, romance, adult)

Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie (enemies to romance, chicken marsala, a familial yikes but very good friends, did you adopt the cat or did the cat adopt you, snow globes, shoe descriptions, fat MC, this is my favorite romance tbh, adult)

The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan (Scotland, power of books, side romance, small town, precariously balanced large vehicle, running your own small business, misunderstanding the role of libraries but I’ll overlook it, job loss cw, adult)

Bossypants by Tina Fey (humor, short chapters, memoir, “Mrs. Fey's change of life baby,” Jimmy Fallon getting owned, adult)

Boy Meets Girl by Meg Cabot (epistolary-ish, baking, complaining about NYC real estate, labor disputes, eating disorder cw, romance, adult)

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal (historical fiction/alternate history, math/physics/science, supportive husband, Jewish MC, awesome women, worldwide catastrophic event cw [I know but try it], side romances, adult) 

A Countess Below Stairs/The Secret Countess by Eva Ibbotson (historical fiction, WWI/Russian Revolution trauma cw, eugenics cw, quirkier Downton Abbey, romance, YA/adult) 

A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn (historical mystery, side sexiness, butterflies, I keep talking about this series, adult)

Don't Date Rosa Santos by Nina Moreno (Gilmore Girls but make it Florida, Latinx MC and LI, bi MC, family curses, own voices, character death cw, romance, YA)

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine (fantasy/fairy tale retelling, classic, curses, you’re allowed to like the movie I guess but read the book for real, romance, middle grade)

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes (small town Maine, overcoming past trauma, spousal death cw, depression cw, The Yips, friends to romance, adult) 

The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone by Jaclyn Moriarty (fantasy, cool aunts, journeys, middle grade)

Faking It by Jennifer Crusie (con men/people, messy family, murder?/fleeing the scene/technically I’m homeless, delicious sounding muffins, art theft, romance, adult)

Field Notes on Love by Jennifer E. Smith (train journeys, sextuplets, romance, YA)

The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Pérez (zines, music, Latinx MC, middle grade)

Heartstopper by Alice Oseman (graphic novel/available as a webcomic [@heartstoppercomic], cute, gay MC, bi MC, school uniforms, bullying cw, romance, YA)

How Not to Ask a Boy to Prom by S.J. Goslee (fake dating, gay, bad boy?, YA)

I Wanna Be Where You Are by Kristina Forest (dance, road trips, Black MC and LI, dog, parental death cw, own voices, enemies to romance, YA)

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang (statistics, autism/Asperger’s, escort, Asian/biracial MC, family owned restaurant, own voices, romance, adult)

Louisiana's Way Home by Kate DiCamillo (quirky small town, funnier than she knows narrator, a little bittersweet, middle grade)

Lucky Caller by Emma Mills (radio programming, family drama, neighbors, banter, contest mistakes, romance, YA)

The Morning Gift by Eva Ibbotson (marriage of necessity, Holocaust/WWII cw, Jewish MC, scientific sheep, paleontology, quirky side characters, romance, YA/adult)

My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger (epistolary-esque, Boston, gay MC, Asian MC, Latinx MC, musical theater, friendships!, baseball, romance, YA)

The Next Great Paulie Fink by Ali Benjamin (multiple POV/semi-epistolary, new girl in school, contests, small town, middle grade)

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang (graphic novel, fake fantasy but make it fashion, genderfluid MC, middle grade)

The Princess Bride by William Goldman (uncategorizable, funny, classic, fake politics, satiric genius is at its fullest flower, fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles, etc., YA/adult)

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (politics, royal family, Texas, Latinx/biracial MC, bi MC, gay LI, everyone’s already talking about it but I listed it anyway, enemies to romance, adult)

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald (pen pals, small/rural town, translated, character death cw, power of books, side romance iirc, adult)

Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson (graphic novel, roller derby, friendship, finding yourself, middle grade)

Sorcery & Cecelia, or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer (historical fantasy, Regency, cousins, side romances, estates, The Season, epistolary, middle grade/YA)

The Summer of Jordi Pérez (And the Best Burger in Los Angeles) by Amy Spalding (fashion, burger bros, lesbian MC, fat MC, queer LI, Latinx LI, own voices, romance, YA)

To All the Boys trilogy by Jenny Han (fake dating, baking, sisters, Asian MC, own voices, romance, YA [I mean, if you’ve seen the movies...])

To Night Owl from Dogfish by Holly Goldberg Sloan (epistolary, enemies to friends, matchmaking youth, gay dads, sleepaway camp, middle grade)

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

Moffat Dracula Review

Plot Summary For People Who Don’t Want To Watch It:

Dracula corners Jonathan, Mina, and Sister Agatha Van Helsing in a secluded convent in Budapest following Jonathan’s escape from his castle. The castle sequence itself is explained in flashback as Jonathan recounts his experience, leading up to the realization that he himself had died during his stay there. 

Realizing he’s now become some form of undead creature, he attempts to kill himself via a stake but is unsuccessful. Despairing at this, he invites Dracula inside the convent in exchange for a true death.  Agatha and Mina are able to stay safe within a circle of sacramental bread but everyone else is massacred. 

When Mina sees Dracula disguised as Jonathan approaching them, she invites him inside the circle. He of course reveals his identity immediately after. Agatha bargains her own life for Mina’s, so Dracula allows the other girl to go free.

Some time later, Dracula sets sail for England aboard the Demeter, a Russian ship with a strangely high number of wealthy passengers and a bluebeard’s cabin no one is allowed to enter. He quickly picks off the passengers one by one, meanwhile himself leading the effort to find the murderer onboard. 

This culminates in the remaining passengers finally searching the ship— and the mysterious cabin which is revealed to have been hiding a sickly Sister Agatha inside. She explains that Dracula is a vampire and together with the passengers they attempt to kill him by setting him on fire. But it is unsuccessful. Agatha urges everyone to escape on lifeboats because she intends to blow up the ship with her and Dracula in it before it is able to reach England. 

Dracula does not die but remains dormant under water. He reaches Whitby roughly 100 years later and is immediately captured by the Jonathan Harker foundation, lead by Agatha’s descendant Dr Zoe Van Helsing. He leaves captivity fairly quickly however with the help of Frank Renfield— a lawyer he hired over skype. 

Zoe is revealed to be dying of cancer. Dracula offers her his blood to heal her but it doesn’t seem to work. It instead gives her a bond to communicate with her dead ancestor Agatha, which gives her more insight about the vampire. 

Meanwhile, Dracula begins preying on Lucy Westenra, a young socialite. Despite leading a seemingly perfect life, she is wholly apathetic and disgruntled with her situation. She allows him to feed on her in exchange for the high a vampire’s bite can give her. He attempts to turn her into a vampire but she’s burned horribly once she’s cremated following her funeral.

Her death leads Zoe and Jack Seward to where Dracula has been staying. During their confrontation however Lucy returns, and after learning about her appearance, begs Jack to kill her, which he does. 

Zoe asks Jack to leave so she may speak to Dracula alone. She surmises that all of Dracula’s weaknesses are actually ineffective. The only thing he fears is death, and humanity’s willingness to die, She then... resolves to sit down and die right there. But at the last moment Dracula drinks her cancerous blood which should in turn kill him... they make out while dying... The end?

If that sounds like it makes no sense, it’s because it doesn’t. 

Final Thoughts:

The plot was nonsensical and the pacing was very poor and completely unstructured. The story itself bore little to no resemblance to Dracula at all, to the point where I wonder why they even bothered to keep the names. 

Most of the characters were new, and the few that were ported over from the Stoker novel had hardly anything in common with their original versions, Dracula included. 

Jonathan was the most in character of the bunch, if he was fairly more genre savvy while stuck in Dracula’s castle. Mina’s characterization seemed to be confined to a single flirtatious letter, an endless well of trust for Jonathan, and constant sobbing. She was more of a liability than anything else. 

Agatha served the role of a genderbent Van Helsing, though her manner was entirely lifted from the Coppola film. This could’ve been very cool if they hadn’t randomly made her a nun without actually committing to it at all. She was not really portrayed as having any actual lived experience as a nun in the victorian era. And faith as a concept was only touched on for her to dismiss— hilariously casually given her position.  

I think the actress’s performance was fairly decent, and she def grew on me in the second episode when she’s not actually in a convent to constantly remind us how dissonant of a nun she is. But it would’ve been nice if they would’ve either committed to actually making her a nun, (a legit vampire hunting nun could be so cool!) or just abandoning the concept altogether. Because the way it was presented just felt like window dressing. 

Also I’m not normally averse to shipping Van Helsing/Dracula but having to genderbend one of the two just to do it is like... hm. Also the weird tension they had going on was very badly executed in general. 

Speaking of Dracula, he had to be the weakest part of the show. He was written in the smuggest, most infuriating way possible. And it might have worked with another actor but this dude just did not have any gravitas or stage presence whatsoever. And it certainly was not helped by the fact that his costuming and makeup were so fucking lackluster. 

Despite being the linchpin of the story, he had no goals nor any particular drive. He was just out there doing Stuff for Reasons and none of them were compelling. It seemed like he was just killing to kill and the writing was not good enough to actually carry any of the vague themes about how he’s looking for new brides (why?) how he’s searching for a The Perfect Fruit (what???) or anything at all really. He had no depth whatsoever beneath his stupid quips and self-satisfied demeanor. 

There was an interesting implication that he needed to choose who he drinks carefully in order to maintain his own personality/sanity/sentience and that without blood he’d… apparently just become like any of the zombies we saw in the show. And that is such a cool concept! But it was not really  explored, nor was it written all that well. Even though it could’ve been (and I think was maybe intended to be???) an excellent source of existential dread! 

But yes, in general there was hardly any depth to this show. They played almost every possible card they could for shock value, and included many unnecessary and frankly underwhelming esoteric concepts that went nowhere. There was so much gore and random effects. We had zombies, vampire infants, and Dracula legit wearing people’s skins. The lore didn’t make any sense either, apparently people just… being unable to die despite their body’s so called death is a common occurrence? It wasn’t clear whether Dracula even had much control over who he changes and whether or not they become proper vampires. The entire thing just seemed poorly thought out. 

There were a lot of easter eggs and references to previous Dracula adaptations (and even some unrelated vampire media). I definitely noticed nods to the Hammer Horror movies and the Lugosi film, which was fun. The biggest noticeable influence however would have to be the 1992 Coppola movie. I have never seen a show try so hard to be another movie lmao. They even went so far as to make a spiritual successor to the film’s main theme that’s about as close as you could probably get without actually licensing the music. 

However, while the Coppola film at least had skill with regards to the costuming and cinematography to carry its aesthetic, this show simply did not. The costumes, the makeup, and the special effects were all lackluster. The set was nice enough but was not shot in a way to really leave much of an impression. 

The first episode was abysmal— mainly due to Dracula’s awful performance (those disgusting fungus covered fake nails, that age makeup, that ACCENT) and the entire awkward af scene where he terrorizes a convent of nuns while naked and covered in blood. But it was at least so bad it was funny.

The second episode was the most tedious to me because it was less offensively awful so I couldn’t even enjoy the badness. There was definitely a sharp uptick of quality whenever Dracula was offscreen for any notable amount of time though. The passengers were rather boring but I liked the crewmen. And Agatha honestly killed it for the latter half. 

The last episode was by far the worst and yet the most entertaining because they just stopped trying at that point. 

Renfield was amazing and an absolute delight every time he was on screen. Dracula found him over skype for God’s sake, how can that not be fantastic? He actually utters the words “Dracula has rights,” and his argument somehow actually fucking works.  

And even Dracula himself was far less insufferable with the shift in dynamics. By being forced to cope with the modern world, he could no longer act like such a smarmy, self-assured know it all. Seeing him freak the fuck out at the sight of helicopters was genuinely fun. 

Lucy’s handling was misogynistic af though. It was bafflingly, needlessly awful. And the way she was vilified at the very end was appalling. They almost had an interesting deconstruction wrt her utter malaise for her life, and the implication that she actually resents her beauty. But then of course she gets burned alive, and then is treated horribly for it by the protagonists. 

Even though it’s clear she has no idea what’s happened to her body, Zoe doesn’t even bother to explain it to her. She just makes her take a selfie of all things so she can see what she really looks like. It didn’t seem like the show had a shred of sympathy for her, because “oh, clearly she was a narcissistic bitch and she deserved what she got” or something like that?? 

The utter indifference everyone has to her death is baffling. It was an afterthought, that seemed like its only purpose for existing was yet again just shock value. The scene, after her death, immediately shifting the focus back to whatever weird personal rivalry that borders on sexual tension  Agatha/Zoe and Dracula have going on.  

But all in all, this adaptation had me baffled, frustrated, and cringing through most of it. It was unintentionally funny quite often and I honestly enjoyed it, but for all the wrong reasons. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to melt their fucking brain.

[master-sass-blast]

Tricks, Tricks, Tricks!

I hate doing intros when I’m tired bc it feels like it takes forever.

Summary: You and Wade set up a haunted house for the kids at Xavier’s --and prank Scott Summers, of course.

Pairings: Piotr Rasputin x Reader.

Rating: G. Just ignore the swear words. Pls.

Set before “Questions and Answers” but after “THIS IS HALLOWEEN.”

Taglist: @marvel-is-perfection, @chromecutie, @super-darkcloudstudent, @girl-obsessed-with-things, @nebulous-leo

It’s not every day that you and Wade stumble onto a legitimately, objectively good idea.

Granted, you guys have tons of great ideas. The fallback of nearly all of them, however, is that they usually involve some sort of destruction and-slash-or generally deviant behavior.

Which, in yours and Wade’s opinions, makes the entire shebang that much more fun, but dealing with the “post brilliant idea clean-up” and the temporary social fallout among your peers –depending on who you target and piss off—isn’t quite as fun.

However.

It’s Halloween season. And the teachers at Xavier’s tend to do some sort of Halloween-y thing for the students there because a lot of places that host seasonal events –surprise, surprise—won’t admit mutants.

Plus, Piotr loves Halloween, which means the two of you have a “non-deviant” spokesperson to advocate for your plan.

And, the cherry on top of it all, is that Scott has been an absolute asshat as of late, meaning that he needs to get the shit pranked out of him to whack his massive ego back down to a more manageable size.

You and Wade grin at each other as you look up various “how to make a haunted house” tutorials. This is gonna be awesome.

 ***

 Convincing Piotr to back your idea is easy.

First, you convince him without Wade around. You’ve learned that Piotr doesn’t necessarily mind if you and Wade come up with ideas, but that Wade’s manner of “selling them” completely frustrates your darling boyfriend and puts him off even the most benign suggestions.

Second, you present the idea as something fun and seasonal for the students at Xavier’s; Piotr, essentially, is a massive mother hen that loves nothing more than making his “kids” happy, which means that he’s on board for just about anything that involves doing special stuff for the students.

Third, you’re his girlfriend and he thinks you’re cute, which means all you have to really do is bat your eyelashes at him and say please.

(And, granted, you’d had other tricks up your sleeve if he’d hesitated, but sometimes life just lets you knock one out of the park. It’s a great feeling.)

***

 With Piotr’s seal of approval, you wind up selling the idea to the rest of the X-Men with no problem –and, since Jean’s out of town visiting family, she’s not here to rat you out to Scott, either.

Granted, Xavier still could, but you’re starting to think he’s less of a “lawful good” and more of a “neutral” or “chaotic good” type than he lets on. There’s been plenty of times he could’ve sold you or Wade out on any of your pranks, but he usually keeps his mouth shut.

Ah, well. Best not to question the freebies life sends your way.

Better yet, you and Wade already have a list of ideas and necessary supplies, thanks to your “haunted house research binge” that you two did earlier. Granted, Piotr outright naysays half of the suggestions due to them being too expensive, too destructive to the building, or too gross –Wade—but all in all it’s a success.

Hell yeah.

 ***

 The official set up goes as such: on the designated “haunted house day,” you, Wade, and a few volunteers get to spend the morning and part of the afternoon setting up the haunted house in a sectioned off part of the mansion –except it’s for the elementary aged students, so it’s technically “Haunted House Lite,” but that’s fine. Then, at four in the afternoon, the elementary aged students will get to walk through, enjoy some G-rated spooks, and get little bags of candy at the end to enjoy.

Lovely. Wonderful. Wholesome.

And then the fun comes in.

Because, beknownst to Piotr only because he caught you and Wade conspiring with everyone else, you and Wade managed to get all the middle school and high school students in the room and fill them in on your idea to scare the everliving shit out of one Scott Summers.

And, because teenagers are basically little shits that run on caffeine and entropy, they’re all super down to watch Scott get pranked.

So, once the little students have had their seasonal fun and have been ushered off for dinner with everyone else, you and Wade and your volunteers have five paltry hours to beef up your haunted house with some higher grade spooks and also set up your prank for Scott.

Granted, it’s not a lot of time to work with, but the two of you have worked with less before.

 ***

 The prank itself, compared to yours and Wade’s usual fare, is… unremarkable, actually.

“Go figure,” Wade grumbles under his breath while he wrestles with one of the several smoke machines he’d purchased for the prank. “Captain Vanilla-Save-For-the-Pole-Up-His-Ass doesn’t watch horror movies. Leave it to a fucking jumpscare. Fucking stupid. He’s literally the single most boring person to exist!”

“Hey, at least it makes it easy for us,” you reason as you work on dying a bunch of cheesecloth with a massive mixing bowl of tea. “Why go through the extra effort for a dill-hole like him?”

“Fair enough. Hey, I think I got this working!” Wade tries turning on the smoke machine, then pulls a scowl when it makes an alarming grinding noise, turns it back off with a disgusted huff, and turns in his chair to shout down the hall. “Nathan! Get your ass in here and talk to your cousin! This fucking thing won’t work!”

You snort and shake your head.

(Nathan does, in fact, get the smoke machine to work, but only because he bothers to read the instructions first.

Wade calls bullshit anyway.)

 ***

 The day of is nothing short of busy.

The two of you –and your volunteers—set up shop in one of the unfinished wings meant to be proper classrooms. You’ve got the entryway, the flight of stairs going up to the second floor, the hallway, and a few of the rooms of the rooms to set up your little “house of horrors” in (along with the back stair case that leads back down to the main hallway on the first floor, but that’s only for an easy exit for everyone).

The main order of business is such: put up the most labor intensive props –curtains to black out the windows, a curtain to block off the first floor hallway from view, spiderwebs, anything hanging from the ceiling or the walls that isn’t going to be switched out—first so that the bulk of the work is done for the day, since you won’t have much time between the littler students and the older students (and, most importantly, Scott).

The smoke machines get put in next, along with any special lights –including some cool black lights you and Wade had gotten their hands on, which go next to a mirror at the end of the walkthrough so the students can see what their costumes look like under the effects of the lights.

After that is the rest of the props, which are all switch out stuff. The younger students get some relatively innocuous skeletons, some cartoonish looking zombies, a couple mummies, and a bunch of pumpkins, black cats, and otherwise tame Halloween fare. The older students get much gnarlier, gorier stuff, including a demonic clown statue that actually gives you the creeps.

You grin as Wade sings “Spooky Scary Skeletons” –the dubstep remix, no less—while the two of you fill up goody bags for the students. This is going to be great.

***

 Piotr stops by after lunch with a bag of costumes –yours and his—and some extra supplies Wade had asked for.

You kiss his cheek as he hands off the bag of decorations to Wade. “Hey, babe. Had a good day?”

He nods. “Students are very excited to go through haunted house. Especially younger ones.”

“Well, here’s hoping we can give them some good, old-fashioned, spooky fun,” you say with a grin. “Ready to get changed and transform into creatures of the night?”

He does a scarily perfect Dracula laugh and winks at you. “But of course, moya lyubov’.”

Your costumes –for today and also for this year’s Halloween—are Dracula and the bride of Dracula. Piotr made nearly all of it, save for his shirt and slacks (and your two’s shoes, obviously), and between the costumes, the makeup, and some fake fangs, the two of you actually look the part.

(And Piotr sounds the part, what with his Russian accent and all. It’s almost like he was born for the role of Dracula.)

The two of you get to set up in one of the rooms with two doors, which also boasts a cauldron with a smoke machine in it, a bunch of fake spiderwebs, a couple of fake coffins, and some skeletons hanging on the walls. You get dressed, do each other’s make up, and then Piotr helps you put on your fangs before doing his own.

“So, tell me how to do a good Russian accent,” you say, lisping slightly around your fangs. “I gotta match what you’re selling.”

“I think you do just fine,” Piotr replies as he puts a glob of denture cream into one of his fangs and sticks it to his upper canine tooth. “Just try to avoid cheesy mobster accent, and you will do great.”

“Are we gonna do the whole ‘I want to suck your blood’ thing?” you ask. “I think we probably should.”

“If you want to.”

“Okay. I’m gonna practice, you tell me how I sound.” You clear your throat, get into your mental zone, then let out an accented, ominous, “I want to suck your blood!”

Piotr chuckles as he tests the fang’s hold on his tooth. “Very nice, myshka.”

You preen, then practice a few more times at varying pitches and speeds. Then, once you’re certain Piotr’s adjusted to your fooling around, you lean in and murmur, “I want to suck your dick.”

Piotr sputters, cheeks flushing –even under the pale make up you’d put on him—and looks around for anyone that might’ve overheard you. Once he’s certain that no one heard you –especially Wade—he exhales and shakes his head. “Later.”

You giggle and kiss his cheek.

***

 Right at four, the elementary aged students are ushered into the haunted house.

You can hear them from the room where you and Piotr are set up, giggling and gasping as Ellie and Yukio –who had volunteered to walk the younger students through—escort them along.

“Alright, before we enter this room, we all need to practice our brave faces,” Yukio says outside the door furthest away from you and Piotr. “Because in this room are Dracula and his wife!”

There’s some gasps and “oohs” from the kids, along with a couple expected “Dracula isn’t real”s.

“Don’t get too close,” Ellie says warningly. “Or else they might try to suck your blood!”

You grin at Piotr as the kids gasp again –he grins back and winks at you—then put on your “game face” as Ellie opens the door so the kids can enter the room.

It’s hard to keep a straight face, though, in the presence of the elementary students. It’s easy to tell that they’re really enjoying the mini haunted house, what with how they’re bouncing and grinning, and that combined with their adorable costumes –skeletons, princesses, pirates, pumpkins, there’s even one of the kids dressed as Iron Man—makes the entire thing downright heart-melting.

The kids all gasp, giggle, and whisper amongst themselves as they approach you and Piotr, flocking together like a bunch of baby birds—

And then one of the kids in the back shouts, “That’s not Dracula! That’s Mr. Piotr!”

Ellie, Yukio, and you all snort, while Piotr just winks at the kid in question.

“What do we have here, my love?” you ask, slipping into your “vampire accent” as you make a show of looking over all the kids, which prompts another slew of gasps and giggles from them. “It seems someone has brought us a bunch of tiny treats to eat!”

Piotr “hmms” as he stands, looming over the students in his long, flowing black cloak. “So it does, moya Koroleva. I must say, I am feeling peckish. Perhaps we should have afternoon snack.”

“Oh no!” Yukio exclaims. “Do you guys think they should be able to do that?”

“No!” the group of students all shout at once (which, admittedly, is a little rough on the ears).

“Well, I think we can do whatever we want,” you retort, looking over at Piotr to make sure the two of you time everything properly. “And…”

“We want to suck your blood!” you and Piotr declare while simultaneously fake-lunging at the group of students.

The students shriek, then run out the other door at Ellie and Yukio’s encouragement.

You and Piotr “pursue” the students –which is less of an actual pursuit and more just angling yourselves in their direction—until the last of the kids “escape” into the hall, then stop and grin at each other.

“I think that went well,” you say –quietly, so as not to disrupt the students’ experience.

“I agree.” Piotr holds out his arm to you. “Shall we, moya Koroleva?”

You giggle and place your hand on his arm. “Absolutely, my love.”

The two of you head out the door at the far end of the room –the door the students had originally entered in—and into the hall. Fortunately, there are a couple curtains blocking the rest of the hall from view, meaning that there’s no risk of anyone seeing the two of you sneaking through the hallway and down the stairs to the main floor.

Piotr ducks into one of the storage closets by the staircase and pulls out a box with various goody-bags stashed in it. “These looks very nice, moya lyubov’.”

“Thank you. I tried to make sure everyone got one of everything –oh, wait a second.” You reach into the closet and pull out a bag you’d stashed separately from everyone else’s. “This one’s Timothy’s. I wanted to make sure it didn’t get mixed up and he get peanuts by accident.”

“Good thinking.” Piotr sets the main box of treats on a nearby table, then turns back to you and kisses the top of your head. “How are you feeling, dorogoy?”

“I’m feeling good; I’m really looking forward to the big prank tonight!” The corner of your mouth turns up when he makes a “hmmm” of disapproval. “I take it you’re not a fan?”

“I just… I am concerned about how you and Wade target Scott,” Piotr says diplomatically. “The two of you seem to ignore everyone else.”

“Well, there’s not really a need to prank everyone else,” you reason. “And it’s not like we prank Scott all the time, either.”

“I would just worry about team dynamics.”

“He already fucks that up by being an asshole, honey,” you argue, careful to keep your voice down so the kids don’t hear you swearing. “Scott’s a total dick! He’s objectively horrible to Wade; he’s also a jerk to Russell. Like, massively.”

Piotr sighs. “I… I do not think pranking helps the situation.”

“Look, sometimes when people refuse to listen to polite conversation, you have to smack them around a little to keep them from letting their asshole behavior ooze all over everyone.” You grin. “Wade and I are just the smacking team.”

Piotr glances towards the door where the back staircase opens onto the main floor; there’s sounds of little voices and footsteps, meaning the kids are almost done. “Just… be considerate. That is all I ask.”

“Already done, baby,” you reassure him. “It’s a super basic jumpscare prank. Nothing about him, nothing about being a mutant, all Halloween themed. I made sure Wade didn’t get too crazy or destructive this time around.”

Piotr relaxes a little at that and kisses your temple—

And then the door opens, and the group of students rush into the main hallway.

“I told you it was them!” one of the students shouts, prompting everyone else to laugh.

“It was,” you admit, foregoing the vampire accent. “Did you guys like the haunted house?”

“Yeah!” the group choruses at once.

You and Piotr both grin, then work on handing out bags of candy to the students –and make sure that Timothy gets his special bag, no allergy episodes today, no sir—

And it’s good. Life is good.

 ***

 Once the younger students exit for dinner, everything switches to a mad scramble to flip the space for the second walkthrough.

Granted, it doesn’t sound like much, until you realize that it involves taking down basically all the props and putting new ones in.

It’s sweaty work, and by the time you’re done you have to reapply all your vampire make-up –because you and Piotr are still doing the vampire bit. And then—

And then.

Once the older teams exit the “vampire room,” you’ll sneak out the “entry” door and down the hall, then hover over the door everyone exits out into the main floor hall at the end of the walkthrough, and when they do, you’ll drop down next to Scott and scare the everliving shit out of him.

Simple. Stress-free. Borderline stupid.

It’s gonna be great.

 ***

 The second walkthrough is just as much of a success as the first one. The older students aren’t as giggly or excitable as the younger group, but it’s still easy to tell they’re enjoying the haunted house –at least, if the occasional screams and comments about “how cool” everything looks is anything to go by.

Better yet is that Scott is jumping and gasping at, like, everything. He’s so easily scared that you won’t even have to try when you drop down next to him. He’s so easily scared that the prank almost isn’t fun.

Keyword being: almost.

You and Piotr do your vampire schtick again –which, unlike what you did for the elementary students, this round involves the two of you lunging out of dark corners and acting, objectively, much scarier—and when the older teens and Scott run out, you grin, give Piotr a kiss, then dart out the other door.

It takes basically zero time to get positioned over the door everyone exits out of. You tuck yourself up into the corner where the walls and ceiling meet, then resign yourself to being bored while the older students finish their haunted house walkthrough.

Scott, predictably, is the first one out of the door. He looks annoyed by the entire situation, and is trying to brush fake cobwebs off his shirt.

Perfect.

You wait until there are a couple of students in the hall as well –you can’t have the prank go unwitnessed—then count down from five before dropping down next to Scott while screaming “Trick or treat!” at the top of your lungs.

He jumps five feet into the air and shrieks like a teenage girl in a horror movie, and the students laugh.

Mission: accomplished.