#and showing shared interest over an artwork. why is the self so much more important than communityyyyy

[andreycoded]

lots of posts about what streaming services are doing to artistry and what streaming services have done to fandom and etc etc capitalism, the usual. feeling a little bit nostalgic about post-november fifth spn fandom again. everything changes so fast but that was literally just a huge group of people coming together and forming a community. not that it was a utopia or anything but sigh I kinda feel like it’s harder to find that than before in the internet. and Tumblr is a social media safe haven but we live in these internet spaces so much and they’re constantly changing even though I (or we) don’t want them to change. like every space I'm inhabiting is changing and I can’t do anything about it and it’s always capitalism and sigh.

[beevean]

Why Rosaly matters

It's no secret that Rosaly was done very dirty in Curse of Darkness.

She has about the same importance of Elizabetha Cronqvist: "dead wife who spurns her husband's revenge quest and gets vaguely namedropped in-game". But while Elizabetha at least gets her own bio and artwork in LoI's complete guide (not that it says much, just that she fell ill during Mathias' campaign and that she had already died by the time he returned), Rosaly doesn't even get this dignity: her name is only offhandedly mentioned in Hector's and Julia's bio - and she's not even called "wife"! She's just Hector's generic "lover" ("恋人")!

And since she doesn't get her own artwork, we only know what she looks like because Julia just so happens to look identical to her (instead of sharing any similarities with her brother like you'd expect). The implied romance between Hector and Julia by the end of CoD ends up feeling disrespectful for all parties involved: Rosaly, because she gets replaced in a matter of a few days; Julia, because the implication is that Hector only got interested in her because she happened to look like another woman; and Hector, because he sure moved on quickly from the woman he swore revenge for!

This entire rant is to say that I am even more impressed by the amount of work Kou Sasakura and Ayami Kojima put in their prequels to both flesh out Rosaly as a character and convince me that the relationship between her and Hector was too pure to be cut so quickly, and I'm glad that, thanks to the prequels, she gets elevated far above the level of faceless disposable wife.

Rosaly doesn't have the most tridimensional personality in the series, but she's not meant to have one. She's humanity at its best. She's a simple woman, living a perfectly normal life, going by the teachings of Christianity (she's a postulant nun in the MF manga, and she studied at a monastery in the PtR manga) and being kind and altruistic, eager to help for the sake of helping and never asking anything in return.

Her representing the best of humanity matters for Hector. He comes from a life of shunning and hatred, and he was made to feel like he didn't belong among his own kind because of his dark powers. For an untold period of time, he worked under the incarnation of evil to slaughter humankind. And while he did rebel, his motivations at the time seemed to be mainly self-centered:

Hector at this point in time has no affection for humanity yet: he's simply pragmatic enough to disagree with Dracula's plans, and proud enough to break free of his command. He recognizes the inherent wrongness of a human participating in the genocide of his own kind (even in the PtR manga he says "please, please, I'm human too"), but not much beyond that.

So it's Rosaly who finally shows him the inherent value of humanity.

Rosaly's only flaw, if we want to call it that, is that she's too idealistic. She gets told that she's too nice, that she works too much for others, and that most importantly she's being very reckless in keeping with her a mysterious stranger she knows nothing about. Even so, Rosaly still insists on taking care of Hector, and she asks him to please stay beyond the time he needed to heal. Rosaly also refuses to ask questions, something that bugs Hector and his perpetual sense of guilt:

She doesn't care. Yes, realistically, it's naive at best and irresponsible at worst, but Rosaly refuses to pry into Hector's past because whatever sin he may have committed, that's between him and God, and anyone can repent if they want to. And Rosaly has had plenty of proof that, at the very least, Hector does want to be a good person. For him, this also means a chance to start over, without baggage: he's no longer Hector the cursed child, or Hector the Devil Forgemaster, but simply Hector, a normal human being living a normal human life.

Rosaly's lack of fear is so that she's not even deterred by Hector being an edgy boy in the PtR manga :P

(love that Hector calls himself a snake after betraying Dracula, but Rosaly "reclaims" that analogy by saying that she was "bitten right away" and that's why she's keeping him home <3 she's so cute)

And listen. I am weak. I see a character who has never known kindness in their life, suddenly being showered with it, and breaking down because they're overwhelmed, and I melt 💖

But of course, the two don't simply fall in love because she's Nice to him and he's Very Pretty lol. Both prequels show cute bonding scenes between them: Hector struggling to hang laundry, something he could be ashamed of but Rosaly never judges him for; Hector helping Rosaly carry apples and talking about life under the new lord; Hector chopping wood and keeping animals at bay, with Rosaly remarking that he'd be a good sheperd; Rosaly finding lilies of the valley with Hector and explaining how they can be either poison or medicine (which I interpret as them being symbolic for Hector, who has done both evil and good)... There is some real, warm chemistry between them, they help each other, they talk, they live a comfortable life. PtR confirmed that they got married, and it doesn't feel rushed :)

An interesting detail in the MF version is that Rosaly is an orphan, and while she doesn't explain her childhood in much detail, it's implied that she suffered because of it:

(she also lost her family in the PtR manga, but we don't know how old she was. It's heavily implied that Hector's Devils had something to do with it, however, which makes for some harsh dramatic irony...)

While nowhere near the same level of Hector and Isaac, Rosaly has known hardship and loneliness in life as well, but she chose to keep living a life of kindness and optimism: this might explain why she's shown taking care of other children, and it seems to be the reason she's so insistent that Hector, who is obviously just as alone and troubled as she used to be, should stay with her.

Rosaly doesn't need Hector because she needs a man in her house. She's shown to be doing just fine. She simply enjoys his company.

Speaking of that second page, there is also that whole scene of Hector's breakdown after a particularly nasty demon-induced nightmare. He's caught in the throes of his self-loathing, and he still can't accept that he has found his place in the world outside of Dracula's realm.

Rosaly probably didn't understand much of Hector's rant, and why he calls himself a demon, but she gets that he feels alone and unwanted and she's very quick to remedy that:

I always found sweet how she says "anybody can hear demons, perhaps your hearing is too good". She doesn't know that Hector literally has the power to hear and see demons, the same demons who killed his family and lead him to Castlevania where his life was turned upside down. She takes it more metaphorically: you're not alone in your bad thoughts, we all have them, but please don't succumb to them, you have no reason to, you're a good person. "Don't curse yourself," she says to the one who was made to be cursed since he was born. And then, of course, the obvious declaration of love to someone who couldn't believe he deserved to be loved.

And finally, I am in so much love with this page in particular:

Hector recognizes the value of humanity. In the face of adversities, of evil, of the monsters lurking in the dark and cruel humans, goodness can still prevail. After being subjected to the worst humanity has to offer, he has finally seen the proof of that.

And Rosaly, in all of her innocence, remarks what may be obvious to her, but not to him: "You're human too". Not only he's not a demon, a cursed creature to be detested as he put it... he's just as strong as the people he's come to admire :)

All of this is very, very important, when Isaac comes back and ruins everything:

We now know Rosaly. We have seen how much of a good person she is. We have seen with our eyes the pure happiness she and Hector brought to each other. This turns a generic anti-hero motivation into a true trauma (the way Isaac forces Hector to watch genuinely upsets me) and a real crossing of the Moral Event Horizon for our villain, insane or not. And it hurts so much.

But also, remember how I mentioned that it's important that Rosaly taught him the inherent value of humanity? Hector is a foil to Dracula. Both of them lost their beloved ones in the same way, by a mob accusing them of being witches. But while Dracula blamed the entirety of humankind for the actions of a small group, Hector knew exactly who to target for the death of his wife, and by the end, he even realized that the murderous impulse that made him obsessed with the thought of killing Isaac wasn't really his. Hector really is a good person at heart. And this is what makes him say to Dracula, when the two finally face each other, "It is not your place to judge the worth of humans." He, unlike his former master, has seen it firsthand.

When I played CoD for the first time, I sighed and rolled my eyes when Hector mentioned the death of Rosaly right in the first cutscene: why should I care about another Dead Wife, I said? Now, Rosaly has become one of my favorite female characters in the series, and one of the reasons I can't move on from this game's backstory. She's "just" a very kind woman, not dissimilar from other female character such as Lisa, Lydie or Mina, but she's adorable, idealistic, and might give us comfort that everyone is inherently deserving of love :)

[raychesshittyart]

Term break work

Extended Annotations Essay.

Rayche Nolier

 I will be discussing how quite a few women have dealt with in both their mental health and their physical health, their mistreatment by the health system and doctors that have tended to them, and the on-going issues post treatment that they still deal with. I will also be digging into the artists Layla Rudneva-Mackay, who has gone through serious health issues as a person and has very relatable artworks of distorted fruits that discuss the experience of those health issues, and Tracey Emin, who uses the self in a lot of her paintings with certain colour palettes that reference the traumatic experiences of her life, and why they are such important artists. I will then be focusing on Neo-Expressionism as well as Abstract-Expressionism and how these two terms can be used not just on large scale artworks, as they have traditionally been, but on works of art that are at a much smaller scale. Lastly, I will be touching base on how objects can become art, whether or not the artist has improved on the artefact and the concept that anything can be art just by the simple choice of the artist by giving things new or renewed life.

 It’s not always easy to spot the signs of depression and anxiety. In fact, it can take families a long time to realise that someone is living with depression, anxiety, or any other mental health issue. The symptoms will usually creep up on a person, gradually taking hold of them without their realizing, slowly dominating their life. There are a lot of discussions on the invisibility of mental health and the difference on how it has been dealt with it in the past and how it is being coped with it now. Because of its invisibility, there have been many comments of “but you don’t look sick”, “at least you have your health”, and one of the worst ones, in my opinion, “but it’s all in your head, so you’re really okay”. However, it is interesting that once the mental health issue has been shared to people it is easier for those people to start noticing when or if something is wrong with the person living with depression and/or anxiety. The invisibility vail lifts and that person is properly seen. It is a concept that can be easily worked with in one’s practice. The other side of the coin to women going through mental health is the unfortunate and well-known fact that women tend to be misdiagnosed more often than men will be. In Jenny Stamos Kovacs’ article, she discusses how women are twice as likely to experience depression and anxiety than men due to hormonal changes, childbirth, menopause, and the fact women aren’t as likely to be heard by their doctors compared to men.[1] There’s always been that stigma that has gone against the benefit of women, usually worsening a situation that could have been easily avoided and better worked through. Not all cases are just health professionals misdiagnosing women, thankfully, and a lot women can be diagnosed as soon as they show symptoms and can seek the proper they need in time.

 In further discussion of the seriousness in mistakes of misdiagnosis is a woman’s physical health and how women so many women all over have suffered similar consequences of chronic pain, more surgeries that shouldn’t have happened, the worsening of health and its invisibility in some cases. There are a couple articles I have read where I thought they were talking about the same woman but unfortunately, that was not the case. Because of the two women’s misdiagnosis it lead to both their deaths. Both women had reached out in 2018 for medical assistance and were either fobbed off or misdiagnosed because of their age and gender.[2] Both times a medical professional had not listened to the women, ending in the consequence of their deaths.[3] The health system has been known for this downfall; however, the hospitals tend to be good at fixing their mistakes to better themselves so these things can be avoided next time. Although, the consequences that have to be dealt with are usually dealt by the mistreated women. The chronic pain, debilitation, and how daily activities can become a huge challenge are just the tip of the ice burg of consequences. Erica Nahmad goes into depth about the mistreatment, misdiagnosis, and issues that women deal with in the health system.[4] She discusses that women get blamed for their health issues and are told they’re stressing over nothing or are hypochondriacs. We all know someone who has gone through something similar or are going through it ourselves and even in those cases the women don’t always get the treatment and help they need to cope with the new change in their lives. Portraying distress and the emotions that these women go through in art can be difficult, but there have been artists that have been able to capture that perfectly.

 Layla Rudneva-Mackay is an artist that has been able to portray the distress and emotions in her artworks, an artist I was able to really relate to both personally and through her artworks, especially with her ACC bcc Bananas series of works.[5] Before Rudneva-Mackay produced this series her health had really declined as she was misdiagnosed and then later needed three different surgeries. It was during her recovery that these works had come to be. They do an amazing job expressing the chronic pain she had endured and the mental health that came alongside that pain. However, she was able to continue the ability to create active and lush painterly surfaces with soft tones and vibrant colours in these works. She has turned fruit into dark thoughts and feelings in contrast with the vibrant colour palettes that really express what she went through. Rudneva-Mackay can be a great guide to help artists move forward in their practices, something I have experienced myself. It took her around about two years to finish the series, and she had used the making of these artworks in an arts therapy form to really help her through her recovery and chronic pain. Through-out her series it really shows the difference in how she was able to cope with her health issues before, during, and after the producing of the series. Rudneva-Mackay uses the fruit in the works to form facial expressions to convey those dark thoughts and feelings, giving the audience a good visual image of the important moments in her hard recovery.

 While I haven’t quite categorised my practice with these two terms, using intense colour palettes and intense expressive  brushwork for my art pieces fall into the category of being Neo-Expressionism. However, in use of those, I’m also expressing my emotions and life events which tends to fall into being Abstract Expressionism. My works have rather multiple aspects of both, giving viewers mixed reviews on where my practice falls into. Abstract Expressionism is a broad movement that began in the late 1940s, becoming a dominant trend through the 1950s in Western painting.[6] There is no accurate description for this body of work and is comprised of many different painterly forms. It is often used in degrees of abstraction, depicting unrealistic forms or forms of nonobjectivity.  Abstract Expressionism tends to emphasize personal emotional expression in a freeing and spontaneous aspect. I’ve mostly been working with unrealistic forms of the artist body, expressing my own personal emotions in those self-portraits with different facial expressions or movement of the body. Neo-Expressionism had revived some aspects of the Expressionsim movement in the 1970s, led mostly by artist Georg Baselitz.[7] Neo-Expressionist works tend to have highly textural and expressive brushwork, using intense colour palettes that communicates a sense of inner disturbance, tensions, alienation, and ambiguity. Neo-Expressionism also inaugurated a return to romantic subjects, such as myth, history, primitivism, and natural imagery. In terms of my practice, I work closely with intense colours portraying certain emotions, expressive brushwork, gesturally expressing mostly negative emotions such as anger or anxiety, and texturally, bring forth those emotions to the foreground, even if I obscure my figures and self-portraits into the background for most of my works. Both types of expressionisms are mostly portrayed for works at a larger scale, like most well-known artists who are Abstract Expressionism or Neo-Expressionism. However, that isn’t always the case and can be painted on a much smaller scale, potentially in things like books, miniature canvases, or any small surface that an artist can think of using for their artworks.

 Moving on from this idea, I’d like to discuss an artist that I really related to in her works. Tracey Emin’s works could be seen as a form of expressionism, though it hasn’t actually been established yet what kind of expressionism she uses, but her works are also definitely known as autobiographical and confessional, touching on unreported rape, public humiliation, sexism, botched abortions, alcoholism, and promiscuity.[8] She uses her own personal traumatic experiences and heightened states of emotion, disclosing her visceral art. The concept of using one’s traumatic experience to express themselves in art can be a powerful one, because the works of art can give the audience a lot to think about and gets the audience to find their own meaning in the pieces. Emin also uses her own body, working with the self in most of her works. In It was all too much, 2018 Emin paints the self mainly confining pinks and reds where gestural, weaving lines suggest a naked figure in some sort of sexual distress. A coarse of purple and black scribbles explodes where the head is meant to be, as if the face has been reduced by emotional necessity. It is not a new invention allowing paint to drip and splash; however, Emin manages to use these markings to forge her own anguish and emotional and physical pain. While Emin’s traumas are mostly different to my own traumas, I was able to relate to her in the way that she is able to express those traumatic events through her practice. It is something that has been done by artists for a long time, but Emin is able to dig deeper into those traumas in using the self with a lack of posturing in her autobiography, giving the sense that to lay yourself open like this is more akin to a purgative act.

 Having discussed these ideas, I’d like to move on to Object Trouvé, better known as Found Objects. Artefacts have generally been human’s favourite things. Talk about how the need for objects have become a thing, whether they are useful or not. Using objects in art or as art has been around since the early 1910s, with Marcel Duchamp kickstarting the movement with his pieces Bicycle Wheel, 1913 and Fountain, 1917. While Fountain was anonymously handed in for exhibition under the pseudonym R.Mutt both pieces weren’t taken well by the public, and the Society of Independent Artists refused to exhibit Fountain, resulting in Duchamp pulling all of his artworks from the exhibition in protest, even though his name wasn’t on the artwork.[9] I definitely disagree with the refusal of exhibiting that artwork because conceptually anything can be given new thought and new meaning by the simple choice of the artist. Whether that artist has slightly changed an object, left an object as is, or made something new from scratch an artist is able to give it new or renewed life to the piece work. It really falls into the concept of anything can be art, which is a concept I struggled with until I started doing it myself. However, it might have come from the fact of being too attached to certain artefacts to be used in the way they were supposed to. Which is why it’s interesting that the public wasn’t open to Fountain at first. The idea that a toilet bowl could be used for anything but for its original use was preposterous. They seemed attached to the idea that a toilet bowl should only be used for the purpose it was made and to turn it into something else could not be art. Though, once they saw other ordinary daily objects in Duchamp’s collection of works they became more open minded to the possibility.

 While each of these points have touched base on the concepts of my practice throughout the year in a more personal matter, they are still points that are important enough to keep on discussing. Unfortunately, it will not be the last time that the health system, both for mental and physical issues, will let down women by mistreating and misdiagnosing them. It will take a lot of work and time for society to abandon this idea, but to see the slow progress of righting this wrong is something to keep in mind and look forward to when this does finally pass. Being able to know of two amazing female artists conquer such things is something that is inspirational, to me at least, and gives women, and anyone going through serious health issues, something to look up to when going through any traumatic experiences. As for Neo- and Abstract-Expressionism, these two movements that were once big movements, they are not practiced as much anymore, or at least practiced in some other form. Lastly, in further discussion of objects as and in art, these have become more accepted as art works with the public as more artists are using this concept in their works. The beauty of these works are more appreciated than when the movement first began, renewed thought for the renewed life of artefacts.

[luna-tiel]

What Entrapdak Means to Me

On the eve of Entrapdak Positivity Month, I thought it was as good a time as any to share my rambling thoughts on a ship that’s affected me in a way I didn’t think was possible. 

Entrapdak is the first ship I have ever been invested in. It’s such a new experience for me that it’s taken me the last few months to wrap my head around the whole thing. I may relate to the characters in a show, but when they form romantic attachments I view it with a degree of passive distance. I don’t understand what it’s like to have those sorts of feelings for someone (I am aromantic and ace as a brick), and, well, I’m honestly not curious enough to give the subject a thorough study. My mind tends to fixate on other things. 

What does this have to do with Entrapdak, you ask? Long story short for people who don’t want to read my meandering essay -- I relate a lot to these characters, and the way they bonded together struck a deep chord in me that I can’t ignore. 

Let’s start with the characters. I knew going in that Entrapta was neurodivergent-coded, but I took it with a grain of salt. When I actually watched the show, however, I found myself relating to her so deeply it shocked me. Never have I felt such a kinship with a fictional character! We don’t share every trait, but it was still like seeing my brain put to life on screen. I related to her enthusiasm over her special interests, her struggles to fit in, her desire to make friends who accept and understand her for who she is. 

The fact Entrapta is completely herself is something I love about her. Over the years of growing up undiagnosed, I developed a lot of masking strategies. Human psychology is one of my special interests, and even with all that accumulated knowledge, masking isn’t easy. It’s extremely mentally taxing. Masking can certainly look easy -- I can, when I have the drive and energy, “pass” as neurotypical, and only people who know me extremely well can tell I’m dying inside. All that effort is taken for granted by a lot of NTs because that’s how people are “supposed to” act, and surely I can “do the bare minimum.” The accumulated stress of near constant masking has led me to the darkest moments I’ve had in my life.

Entrapta’s struggle with leaving Beast Island hit me hard. It threw me back to a time when my feelings of isolation and worthlessness got so bad that I lost the energy to do anything, even the creative pursuits that were the obsession of my life. I retreated so deeply into my inner world that I hardly interacted with anyone. That total apathy shocked my family into getting me professional help, which gave me my autism diagnosis, the coping skills to move forward, and a good start on the road to self-acceptance. It also opened a channel between my family and I, allowing me to feel heard and understood. (An important side note on mental health: if you or someone you love needs professional help, please seek it! Sometimes you have to try out several therapists -- it took me three to find a good fit -- but you are worth it!)

It took me longer to realize, but I also relate to Hordak in some ways. Mercifully I was not raised in an extremist cult environment. However, I know what it’s like to feel defective next to a sibling that seems perfect. I was constantly being compared to my younger brother, and in all areas but art, he was superior. He was smart, athletic, and above all, he fit in with everyone. I didn’t hate him for this -- I hated myself. Trying to measure up to his standard is what caused me to develop such strong masking strategies. Underneath it all, I felt the despair of knowing my peers would reject me as soon as the mask cracked. I also live with chronic joint pain, starting at around age seven. The jury is still out on what’s causing that (the worst of it was due to a previously unknown food allergy, but the pain still comes and goes, even though it’s a lot more manageable than it used to be). This cocktail of pain, stress, and sensory issues I had to deal with gave me a very short fuse at times. 

As an aside, just because I sympathize with Hordak does not mean I am excusing his actions. He is still going to have to face the consequences of his choices, and work to adjust to life post-Prime. The series end gave him a new beginning, the opportunity to be redeemed, and I prefer this to a rushed redemption arc. 

What I love most about Hordak and Entrapta’s relationship is how they accept each other as they are. Hordak gives Entrapta near free reign of his sanctum, he listens to her when she talks, and he respects her opinions. Even when he pushes her away, he still considers the logic of what she tells him, and sometimes ends up doing things her way despite his initial instincts. This is something I do in my own life; I am easily overwhelmed by new information, so my initial response to an idea/activity is almost always a firm (and sometimes rude) “no,” until I have time to properly process and think about it. Hordak is the first person in Entrapta’s life that truly listens to her. He still has things he needs to work on, but it’s a lot better than how most of the princesses are with Entrapta. The Alliance treats her as someone to be managed -- she is useful, but unreliable. Hordak, in contrast, trusts her to get things done in her own way. 

On the other side, Entrapta is the first person in Hordak’s life to accept him without judgment. Hordak spends so much of his energy putting up a front of strength and intimidation, and Entrapta cuts right through that. She’s not frightened by his appearance, and even his outbursts have little effect on her until the two of them start to bond. Entrapta doesn’t come into their interactions with any preconceived ideas of what Hordak is like, or more importantly, what he should be like. This lack of expectation leaves her completely open to accepting whatever Hordak does and says, and it also relieves Hordak of the burden of needing to put on a front around her. When Entrapta sees him at his most vulnerable, she reaches out to him with compassion, something he has never felt before. Entrapta also does this in a way that doesn’t belittle Hordak. His imperfections are not something to pity, they are a valuable part of who he is. 

I loved watching their friendship develop. Entrapta and Hordak’s shared time together evolved slowly into a bond that gave each of them a sense of belonging they had never experienced before with anyone else. It gave me the hope that, despite what an oddball mess I am, perhaps I could find someone who understands me too. 

When a romance subplot inserts itself into a story, I tend to gloss over and ignore it (if I pick up on it at all). I’m even less interested in sex. Way back when I was first getting into fandom I was so excited to go online and meet fellow fans of the books and shows I liked, only to discover the spaces being dominated by arguments over character pairings. I was baffled. This is what people are most interested in? Oh well… back to the hermit cave I go! 

I was late to the party with SPoP. I’d watched a few episodes, but the show didn’t really hook me. This was partially because all I ever heard people talk about online was Catradora, and if that was the main appeal of the show, I wasn’t sure I would enjoy it (sorry Catradora shippers, romance is not going to entice me to watch a show, even if it’s rep). Quarantine was the ultimate cause for me embracing my curiosity and diving headfirst into SPoP, binging the entire thing a few months before the release of season 5.

I vaguely knew about Entrapdak as a ship going into the show, and I admit, had I not been primed for it, I probably would have missed the romantic potential entirely. In no way did I expect to become invested. I was immediately intrigued by their dynamic, and as they got closer, I found myself thinking “oh, I see why people ship these two.” I didn’t understand this realization until months later. I was relating to the characters, and for the first time in my life, I was relating to their relationship.

I headcanon Entrapta and Hordak as an asexual couple. I’ll elaborate on this at a later time (asexuality is a spectrum with a lot of nuance, and this post is plenty long already), but at the core of it, I find joy in imagining these characters in a loving platonic relationship, something I hope to find myself one day. I hope this love comes across in my artwork and in my fanfictions <3

To those of you that read this far, wow, you must be patient! Have an imaginary cookie! I hope this ramble has provided a decent picture for why I, as an aro ace on the autism spectrum, have come to cherish Hordak and Entrapta’s relationship. It’s my first and only OTP… I’m still in shock thinking about that… I guess we’ll see where things go from here!

Take care of yourselves out there!

[mellomedia]

Youth Culture

For Media & Society’s first blog post, our class watched Euphoria, Mid90s, Mean Girls, Kids, and The Breakfast Club. If you haven’t figured out the theme yet, it’s youth culture. Most of these films were set in the 80s and 90s before this current generation. This is the first generation where our lives are saturated by mobile technology and social media (Divecha, 2017). But no matter what generation, youth culture has many common behaviors, or misbehaviors.

Often when I watch a film or read a comic book, I wonder if I relate to the story or anyone in it. I looked for anything in common I might have with one of the characters in the five films we watched. I can identify with Ray from Mid90s the most. I’m not a die-hard skateboarder like Ray. In fact I can’t skateboard at all, but I dedicate all my time and energy into art and animation. While we have different interests, I can relate to Ray’s passion for something he enjoys and the energy he puts into it. Ray is the top skateboarder in his group and practiced every day. All my spare time is spent drawing and taking online animation courses. My goal is to always do better than what I did yesterday. Words to describe Ray would be the same way I describe myself: down to earth, not concerned with fitting in, my own person, caring, always willing to help, and a very loyal friend. When Stevie joins the skateboard crew in the film Mid90s, he finally digs up some money to buy Ruben’s old, used skateboard. Stevie gets injured while attempting an insane jump over a hole in a roof and breaks his skateboard. Ray sees how much Stevie is trying to fit in, no matter how many falls he takes, he gets back up. Ray has a big heart and builds Stevie a new skateboard. As I mentioned, I’m not a skateboarder, but I enjoy trying to make people smile with my art. I enjoy drawing a cartoon of a friend to help them to get out of a funk or just listen to whatever it is they are going through. 

These films all share a few common themes. One theme is belonging. I admit I looked up the term “fitting in” and it was compared to belonging. Fitting in is defined as to be like other people in a group – what they wear, how they act, how they look. (Pace, 2018) Belonging is a basic human need – it is about acceptance – being where you want to be and being where you are wanted (Pace, 2018). A few examples are Stevie (Mid90s) wants to be accepted into the skateboard crew; Brian (The Breakfast Club) brings a flare gun to school as a suicide attempt because he didn't feel he was good enough; and Cady (Mean Girls) is the new girl trying to get accepted by The Plastics.

My freshman year in high school definitely falls into the theme of belonging. I struggled with speech and have a learning disorder. And at the time I had zero confidence in socializing. I’d walk over to a group of kids in the cafeteria just to try to get involved in the conversation, but I couldn’t form sentences quick enough to jump in. I would be the weird kid just standing there. One day my speech therapist asked me what I wanted to improve and I told her I wanted to gain confidence in socializing. She told me the best way to do this would be to just try to talk to more people. Well in high school that worked with some kids, but not all. I’ll never forget one day in the cafeteria I was trying to find a place to sit and eat lunch. I saw an empty chair at a table where a ‘friend’ was sitting. The group was taking turns roasting one another. At one point another kid challenged me. I was doing fine until he said, “You know people are only nice to you because they don’t want to hurt your feelings.” That hurt like hell. He was referring to my speech impairment. I got up from the table and walked away. And that ‘friend’ at the table didn’t defend me at all. One girl came running over to make sure I was alright. I was pissed and hurt. I was not alright. Just so you don’t think I went off the deep end and had a miserable high school experience, I actually gained a great friend in high school that day. Alex, who was a senior, saw me leave track practice early. My head just wasn’t into track, so I went to sit in the empty cafeteria hoping to clear my head. He asked how things were going and I told him what happened that day. He told me, “It’s not easy finding out who your real friends are. But don’t change for anyone and don’t try to be like anyone else. Just be you.” I’ll never forget how he took the time to talk to me. After his advice, I could care less about belonging.

Another common theme between all five films is rebellion. When they aren’t skateboarding, most of the characters in Mid90s spend their time partying, drinking, and doing drugs. In The Breakfast Club, each character is in detention because they rebelled in some way. Why else would they be in detention? Every character in Kids was a rebel, actually more like a criminal. I bet the writer of the film was too.

A third theme is “bro” culture. “Bro” culture is defined as people who are bullies but at the end of the day they have your back, like a brother (Sloothunter42, 2018). Two great examples of “bros” are John (The Breakfast Club) and Ian (Mid90s). Throughout The Breakfast Club, John constantly insults the other kids in detention. He even insults the principal. The group escapes detention to wander the hallways. When the principal sees them, John saves the group by telling them to go back to the library while he distracts the principal. This link shows you the scene I’m explaining: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Iq7MRlHg5I (Hughes, 1985). Not something you would have expected from a bully, but you would from a “bro.” In Mid90s, Stevie’s brother, Ian, beats the crap out of him every chance he gets. But when Stevie is laying in a hospital bed after a car accident, his brother is there by his side. He even shares his precious orange juice.

Now onto one of my favorite things in life, music! I put together a playlist that relates to my adolescent experience. In no particular order, here are 10 songs and what each means to me. But let me point out that some song lyrics mean something to me, while with other songs it was the energy it gives off. I’m all about positive energy. First song is “Mr. Blue Sky” by Electric Light Orchestra. I first heard this song during the movie Guardians of the Galaxy. This song kept me motivated and positive during high school. If I was having a bad day, this was my ‘go to’ song. I also listened to it every day on my way to school. Next is “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley, a.k.a. CeeLo Green. This song reminds me of my mind, imagination, and the stuff I think about. I always have a trillion things going on in my head. I guess that explains my poor focus skills and super procrastination. “Inner Ninja” by Classified is another upbeat song. A few lines that always stuck in my head are, “I find my inner strength and I re-up; Here we go, I know I've never been the smartest or wisest; But I realize what it takes; Never dwell in the dark cause the sun always rises.” My junior year of high school I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. It has and still is life-changing and as much as I don’t let it change who I am, I’m human. But as the song says, don’t dwell on the negative, look for the positive. I always remind myself of the positive. “Through the Fire and Flames” by DragonForce always fueled my brain when I was tired of doing homework or studying. To me the lyrics mean to keep moving forward no matter how difficult. Just look at what your goal is and don’t give up. Plus this song has one hell of a guitar solo that is very motivating. Michael Jackson is one of my favorite artists and “Man in the Mirror” reminds me how important it is to try to do good in the world and make a positive change. Regardless of culture, color, religion, and disability, we are all capable of making good changes in the world. I tried this on a much smaller scale in high school by volunteering at the food pantry and community events. “Clint Eastwood” by Gorillaz is one of many songs by this group that I like. It’s not so much the words I relate to, but I love the animation in their music videos. I remember the first time I saw one of their videos I thought how cool and mysterious it was that we only see the singers as cartoons. We are never shown who they really are. I like the fact that it’s different. Different is good in my world. “Intergalactic” by Beastie Boys reminds me of breakdancing and dancing in general. I love to dance and looked forward to every prom and homecoming dance at high school. “Without Me” by Eminem reminds me that no matter how much people criticize you, you can be very successful at what you enjoy doing. The last song on my list is “Take Me Out” by Franz Ferdinand. To be honest, I just like the beat of the song and it’s one of those songs I listened to over and over in high school.

So that wraps up my Youth Culture blog. I hope it gave you a better understanding of how I relate to the assigned films. But let me make one thing clear, I do not relate to anything in the film Kids. Not one thing.

Below is my self portrait of what goes through my mind. 

Artwork by: Marcello Laudato

[anxiouslyfred]

Reflections in Rooms

Summary: Roman and Remus are both aware that their rooms aren't exactly what people expect from them if anyone visits. When Patton visits his reaction to mistaking Remus's room for Roman's was something neither of them could have predicted. 

Authors Note: I wanted to write something last week and began this with no clue where it was going. Today I finished it and still have no clue where it was going for the entire story. Sorry if it’s bewildering at all. I’m just playing.

/\/\/\/\/\/\

If you live in a room for long enough it becomes a reflection of you in a way people very often won’t understand.

Both Roman and Remus realised this as almost every time a friend came over they’d assume the wrong room was theirs.

Janus visiting was the first time they recognised why it happened. Their remark upon being corrected had been “But you’re so chaotic and have no regard for anything being organised. How on earth can this be your room, Remus?”

Roman was not sticking around to hear the lecture over how organised any important movements were nor how the things Remus hated and rebelled against were conformity and that was never synonymous with organisation. He already had the lecture memorised in case there was ever an instant of a their friends calling while they were out.

“This isn’t quite what I’d expect by a Princes bedroom, Roman. Have you seriously been hiding all the interesting things you love for all this time?” Virgil groused, when he first visited. They’d become friends through a creative writing club and had planned to work on a story together that evening. “Seriously we could have been rocking out together to these bands and you cannot say that you didn’t think I’d like them. Just look at me!”

At least Virgil’s confusion was different to the reactions Roman had gotten before. A few of his friends had gotten very worried over how low some of the snippets left on his desk suggested his self esteem was.

The reaction both brothers were stunned to witness was Patton’s when he first followed Roman home. They’d gotten talking near the end of the work day and it just felt right to invite him over to carry on chatting together and perhaps share some of the creations that he hadn’t shared with the team at work.

Roman had gone to make drinks, giving Patton directions to his room upstairs while he did so when he heard the yell. “Roman your friend isn’t letting me go! What on earth do I do?”

“Let him hug you and then direct him to my room, maybe?” He called back, raising an eyebrow at that reaction. Sure, Patton usually liked to hug everyone in greeting but refusing to let go of Remus was the opposite of how people usually reacted given the unfortunate scent that surrounded him.

“Still not going to free him. This is my new best friend now. He likes kittens!” Patton yelled back before one of his apologetic sounds could be heard, presumably as Remus corrected him to the pronouns for the day.

Once the drinks were finished Roman was finally able to find out what his friend meant. His sibling usually focused on oceanic creatures rather than anything on land so something must have changed.

“I'm drawing catfish, not kittens or cats or anything like that. What's your name anyway?” Remus was explaining, although the picture did currently only have a cats face on it. Patton was hanging off her back, only just letting Roman see the lilac choker that clarified her pronouns.

Entering the room Roman snickered a little, already knowing that from how Patton spoke some of Remus's drawings would probably cause concern. “He's Patton. What's it going to look like when you add the body and colour?”

“It's gonna have mangled limbs of twisted together legs and fins, and a scattered red and yellow mottled pattern mixing fur and scales all over its body. I need to make the eyes bigger though... or smaller, fish have small eyes right?” Remus described already turning to search images of fish so she could decide what size the eyes should be, clearly having decided to ignore Patton hanging onto her.

“Nooo.” Patton whined, reaching clearly with the intent to take the sketch and protect it from Remus's plans. “Pretty kitten.”

Remus still nodded, pushing the drawing out of reach and pulling a folder from beside her desk up. “Yep, it'll be a beautiful kitten, just like these ones.” She insisted, show casing her variety of finished artwork to Patton cheerfully ignoring any upset noises.

Roman was only just close enough to see the pages being turned, but had already seen his sisters art after it was completed enough to know the pages. At the start it would be trips into uncanny valley, all the things Remus saw in robotic attempts to recreate humans or poor game and film CGI designs of people sketched out again as she tried to work out what was so off about them. Then the pages would turn to gore, murder scenes they'd heard described in various books and news broadcasts that she wanted to imagine more vividly. Those ones had Patton almost crying and rushing Remus to move past them without giving any sources or descriptions of her thought process.

After the gore Remus had pages of just normal ocean life as she had wanted to perfect how light works under water before allowing herself more creative attempts. It was her latest project and she'd only moved onto creating her own designs of underwater animals in the last few months.

That was where Roman decided to interrupt again, “So have I lost my friend to you for the evening? I can head back to my room now, if so.”

“Don't be jealous cause I'm more interesting than a Disney fan, Prince Pukey.” Remus immediately countered, raising an eyebrow as she turned. “But you're more than welcome to take your friend back anytime if he'll let go of me.”

“Your friend too, Remus. You are my new kiddo and I need to see everything you've been creating. I love the sharks. They look like puppies, not as terrifying as the movies make them.” Patton tightened his grip, still hugging or clinging to Remus as though she'd run if he let go.

The siblings blink for a moment, Roman stunned that this guy from work essentially has declared Remus as a friend after knowing him an hour and Remus because this guy just walked into her room, seems aghast at any pictures of injuries, war or fighting but has basically just adopted her too. “Where on earth did you find this maniac, Ro, and are there any other I need to prepare to be adopted by?” Remus asks after a moment, folder forgotten in her hands.

“Work. Logan is my main other friend there and they aren't really the adopting type. They will probably criticise any creation scientifically though so I'm trying to avoid inviting him home.” Roman muttered, still taking in what had happened. “Padre, you have literally yelled for hours over anyone suggesting something close to the things Remus has been showing you when we're at work, what...?”

“We make shows for Kids, Roman! That's not an appropriate place for this type of stuff, but there's nothing wrong in Remus exploring such dark subjects as long as she let's people walk away if it gets to be too much.” Patton scolded lightly, grinning as soon as Roman shrugged in response, letting the explanation be left at that.

Patton never did get to see Roman's room on his first visit to their home, but he did make a new friend that he might never have met otherwise.

[honey-girlie]

every kind of way epilogue

chapter: 4/4

word count: ~6k (lol it’s longer than all of the other chapters)

a/n: i wasn’t planning on writing an epilogue, but someone on reddit was interested in reading about Jake and MC winning the finale. so this final (for real final) chapter is dedicated to that person!

thanks so much for reading/liking/reblogging/writing super nice tags, as always!!! you are all so sweet! 💛💛💛

[link to chapter 1] [link to chapter 2] [link to chapter 3]

[link to ao3]

x x x

Eris blinked, staring dumbly at Jen. She must have heard her wrong when the latter announced who won.

She must have, because the very idea of her and Jake wasting the whole summer then coupling up two days before the Love Island final but still coming out as the winners was...

It was absurd, to say the least.

But when Jen and Tim beamed at her and Jake, rushing towards them with open arms, Eris forced herself to face the very absurd reality she was living.

They had won. Somehow.

She burst out a disbelieving laugh as Jen hugged her tightly. Beside her, Jake was wrapped up in his own hug with Tim and looking just as stupefied. When he turned to her, he joined in on the laughter.

“You guys, you did it!” Jen squealed as she pulled away. Her eyes were full of unshed tears, but the excitement for Eris and Jake was evident. “I’m so happy for you!”

“I —” Eris stammered, her brain still trying to catch up. “I’m —”

Jake jumped in and thanked her, saving Eris from embarrassment with his usual eloquence. Tim and Jen quickly congratulated them for a job well done before they were called over by the producers, then they hurried away from the fire pit and left Eris and Jake alone.

She faintly shook her head and glanced over at Jake, whose eyes were bright with elation.

“How in the hell—?”

He grinned from ear to ear. “I have absolutely no idea.”

Eris laughed again as she flung herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck in a near death grip. He embraced her with just as much fervor before bending down and melding their lips together. It was the clumsiest kiss they’ve ever shared from the way they were smiling like idiots.

Love Island 2018 Winners. It was the last thing she expected, although maybe after all they’ve been through, it was the universe’s way of apologizing. She’d gladly accept, particularly if that apology included £50,000 in her pocket.

The next few minutes passed in a blur as she and Jake were thrust about by the crew, making sure their hair was perfect and makeup wasn’t smudged before walking out of the villa. Once their appearances were green-lighted, they stood hand-in-hand behind the doors and awaited their announcement.

Eris had just enough time to glance up at Jake and give him a wide smile. Her incredulity had waned, and all that was left was euphoria.

Despite her apathy towards the public’s opinion over her and Jake, she couldn’t be more flattered that they were chosen as the best couple. Perhaps they loved the story. The way she and Jake had gotten together could have been scripted, for Christ’s sake. It was that dramatic, though the payoff had been more than worth it.

He returned her smile and began to lean in for a kiss, but the doors suddenly flew open and blinding lights assaulted her vision. Eris hissed a colorful curse, distantly hearing Jake laugh beside her before it was drowned out by a roaring audience. Jake squeezed her hand and tugged her along onto the stage, and in a flash, her annoyance evaporated. She forgot to be anything but thrilled, especially when she spotted her family and best friends in the enormous crowd.

Everyone quieted at the voice booming over the loudspeaker.

“Ladies and gentlemen, here are your winners of Love Island 2018 — Eris and Jake!”

Even if the applause nearly shattered her eardrums, Eris grinned through it all, waving at the mass of people along with Jake. His firm grip on her hand was grounding in the midst of all the craziness.

An image then appeared on the giant screen above the villa doors behind them. Eris and Jake twisted around and tilted their heads up. She stifled a groan at the words that came out of the speakers.

“Eris, welcome to your Love Island Journey.”

“Oh god,” she muttered. She did not need a recap of her repeated failures in the villa, thank you very much.

Of course, Jake heard her. He shot her an amused look and leaned his head in.

“Come on, it won’t be that bad,” he said in a low voice.

“Well, it’s not your wonderful little journey we’re watching, is it?”

He shook with silent laughter. Before the video played on screen, he said, “I’ll find you a glass of wine the moment this is over.”

The clips started from the very first day when Eris had picked Jasper. She winced as she watched herself argue with him by the loungers, the daybeds, the fire pit. It was painful remembering how horrid the two of them had been as a couple.

“It wasn’t long before things came to an end,” the voice-over said.

Eris scoffed. “Things hadn’t even started with him.”

“He was such a massive prat to you,” Jake commented with a frown. She and Jake hadn’t spoken much on the first day in the villa. It was only in the days following that he had learned enough from her about how awful it had been with Jasper. “It’s still so weird to me that you were ever partnered up with him.”

“It barely lasted, but trust me, it’s weird for me too.” Eris glanced over at the other Islanders and unsuccessfully tried to spot the man in question. “He’s much better suited for Allegra anyway.”

The video continued, showing her talking with Mason and Levi. They were all smiles and laughs and not-so-subtle muscle flexes as they approached her, whether or not she was alone. She couldn’t deny she enjoyed the way they fought for her attention, even if things remained friendly on her end.

While her primary interest had always been in Jake, Eris still hadn’t discouraged either man at the time. But she didn’t regret her choice. It was important for her to play the game in those early stages. As the clips went on, she was just a bit surprised at exactly how much flirting Mason and Levi had done. It didn’t seem so excessive back then.

“Wow, you were cracking on with everyone, huh?” Jake said. Rather than sounding accusatory, however, his voice was thoughtful.

Eris shifted in place as she watched Levi sidle up beside her on the daybeds. “Can’t blame me for making do with what I had.”

“No, of course I don’t. Everyone did the same.” He huffed a small laugh. “Well, everyone except me. I just didn’t have the confidence. Otherwise, I’d be cracking on with you right beside them.”

She smiled. If only. When Jake really tried, he could make her blush and stammer like no one else.

More drama played out on screen, showing her argument with Allegra and Jen in the bathroom and the fight over Mason by the fire pit. She recalled the severe annoyance she felt at Allegra’s constant attacks. It wasn’t Eris’ job to coddle the girl, despite whatever lasting insecurities she had from her previous relationships.

Nonetheless, Eris encouraged Allegra and Mason to keep trying. They only stayed together for another twenty-four hours, to no one’s surprise.

“You liked Mason, didn’t you?” Jake asked. Her friendship with Jake had been budding at the time, and she remembered ranting extensively about the whole Mason situation to him. “At least a little bit. Why did you keep them together?”

Eris raised a brow and looked at him. “Because I wanted you more.”

He turned to her, his mouth parted, and then he grinned as his cheeks went red.

“I love hearing you say that.”

They both looked back at the screen. The audience laughed at the Art and Graft challenge when the Islander’s artworks were shown. Although Eris wished she had a hand in the actual piece, she enjoyed seeing what Jasper had come up with. Even better, Jake’s strange paintbrush-human with tiny feet was still one of the funniest things she had seen in the villa.

Beside her, he merely smiled and shrugged. Eris laughed to herself, vowing to give him some painting lessons when they got home.

The next recoupling played, and Rohan and Cherry sauntered into the villa. Eris remembered tensing up at the arrival of a new girl. She hated feeling threatened by other women, but it was inevitable on a dating show, especially when said woman was gorgeous. Luckily, Cherry ended up coupling with Mason.

Jake squeezed Eris’ hand while they watched her past self choose him. Despite having grown much closer to him then, she still hadn’t been able to gauge whether or not he actually fancied her. They didn’t talk about the decisions they were going to make that night for the recoupling either, so it had been a gambit picking him.

Then she had noticed the unmistakable glee in his expression when she called his name, and her fears had vanished.

“I was so worried Cherry was going to pick you first,” Eris said. “I thought I was going to go mad.”

Jake nodded. “I was worried too. I wasn’t sure where we stood or if you picked me just as friends or because you knew Erikah wanted Rohan.” She looked over and saw his lips twist into a frown. “That could have been it for us. We could have stayed coupled up since that night, but I was so scared to really make a move. Above everything, I wanted to keep our friendship.”

Eris sighed, her brows knitted together.

She still couldn’t believe how much they skirted around each other despite being close mates and a couple. Countless times she questioned herself why she hadn’t just talked to him like she normally did, why she suddenly lacked the courage to be honest. Maybe it was both the villa and Jake himself that messed with her head.

The screen displayed videos of the short amount of time they coupled up. Aside from the fact the two of them flirted a little more, they acted no different from when they were mates. She never went beyond a hug or a hand on his arm, and he did the same.

Eris cursed herself for it. What if the reason he hadn’t made a move was because he simply mirrored her behavior? What if she had acted differently? What if she had tried kissing him?

And when clips of Levi spending more time with her appeared in the video, chief among her many conjectures was what if Levi hadn’t grafted on her?

Eris stared as he joined her by the pool on the day she’d won a date from the Pied Off challenge. Right out of the gate, he started flirting hard. His smiles were coy, his body language confident. It was slightly embarrassing to admit that even if she fancied Jake the most, Levi’s lines still worked on her. His charm was undeniable, and he knew all the right ways to make a lady swoon.

Up until then, Eris had kept things strictly platonic because of how strong her relationship with Jake had become. Then when Levi started grafting, Jake grew distant. Present, but distant, both as a friend and a partner. She was flooded with doubt and battled with herself on whether or not he actually had feelings for her.

That was why she let Levi get so near her by the pool and why she hadn’t rejected his advances. She’d been so dumb, just because she felt humiliated.

More of her and Levi played, then her heart broke when it cut to a shot of Jake watching them from the kitchen, the troubled wrinkle on his forehead ever prominent. He glanced down and fiddled with his water bottle on the counter before raising his eyes again and keeping them locked on her.

Her hand in his tightened. “Is that when you decided —?”

Jake sighed. “Yeah. Seeing him hang around you so much... I really believed I ruined everything.”

“Jake,” Eris whispered. “I’m sorry.”

He let go of her hand only to wrap his arm around her shoulders, and she looked up at him as he smiled. “I feel like we’ve been over this,” he said wryly.

She released a huff of a laugh. “I know. It’s just different seeing it from your view.” She paused and said bluntly, “I kind of hate watching this.”

Jake chuckled as he rubbed her arm. “Same. But the best parts are coming up soon.”

Her journey continued, cutting to her date with Levi. Jake’s body went rigid beside her when Eris and Levi kissed, and she grimaced, willing the scene to be over as fast as possible.

“For the record,” she said, “you’re a much better kisser than he is.”

As if realizing how tense he’d become, Jake instantly relaxed. His tone was sheepish when he spoke.

“I won’t even lie. That does make me feel better.”

“Am I a better kisser than Cherry?”

He raised an eyebrow at her, looking highly amused. “Are you really fishing right now?”

Eris just shrugged. She spent an inordinate amount of time worrying that Jake and Cherry were actually going to go all the way as a couple. This one small validation was well-deserved, in her opinion. Petty, but deserved.

“Cherry and I never kissed.”

She widened her eyes. “What?”

“Not on the lips anyway. She would try, but I just couldn’t...” Jake trailed off as he smiled softly. “She wasn’t you.”

Her heart leapt. Flooded with warmth, Eris smiled back and looped her arm around his waist. She stood on her tiptoes, pressed a gentle kiss on his neck, and returned her gaze to the screen. Something else fluttered inside her too, but she ignored it.

At the next recoupling, Eris chose Levi and Jake was with Jen. The whole crowd began to murmur, knowing what came next that night.

With thinned lips, Eris watched herself react to Levi and Cherry’s kiss. Her expression was a mixture of incredulity and shock as she stood gobsmacked at the terrace doors. Tim hurried in beside her, instantly followed by Jake.

Eris had been too focused on the scene in front of her at the time that she never noticed the fury on Jake’s face and the menacing step he took towards Levi. Recalling his haste to defend her, chastise Levi, and lead her away from the terrace... It all made her throat tighten in emotion.

She swallowed thickly before speaking. “I’ve never seen you look that mad before.”

Jake was silent for a second before he sighed. “I don’t think I’ve ever been that mad before. I hated watching you go through that. I’m still a little angry with Levi for what he did.”

She rubbed his back soothingly, for both of their sakes. The way he had always supported her almost brought tears to her eyes, and she did her best to keep them at bay. That fluttering inside her intensified. Still, she couldn’t put a finger on it.

“It’s in the past. I’ve moved on from it. Best you do too.”

The clips went on to show Reese entering the villa and the recoupling afterward. Eris knew she had probably been ripped to shreds on social media for staying with Levi, and yet she had done it anyway.

It wasn’t an easy choice. The day after Cherrygate, he had groveled and turned on his charm more than ever, pleading his case that it was a spur of the moment thing.

I don’t know how, it just happened, he had insisted with apologetic eyes. Erikah got in my head, and I’d been overthinking things. But I swear, it didn’t mean anything.

The authenticity in his voice and expression caught her off-guard. Eris remained stoic towards him for a bit, but his obvious regret started to wear her down. For the first time, she didn’t go to Jake for advice, too afraid of what his answer might be. Would he have convinced her to make things work with Levi?

She didn’t have the backbone to be rejected by him a second time. So alternatively, she had sought out Talia.

Talia neither encouraged nor dissuaded her to stay with Levi, and instead she offered what she knew. He seemed genuinely remorseful for what he did, and he’d been brooding even more than usual on the terrace. She also mentioned how clear it was to the other Islanders how much he’s fancied Eris since the beginning. In the end, Talia smoothed her hair in a comforting gesture and suggested she take more time to think it over.

The video played Eris uttering Levi’s name at the recoupling. Her eyes flew to Jake’s reaction. His face remained as unreadable as it was that same night.

“What were you thinking then?” she asked him now. “Were you expecting it?”

Jake shrugged. It was the slightest bit stiff. “A little. I knew you weren’t going to pick Mason, for sure.” He paused. “But I’m still not totally clear on why you stayed with him. We never did talk about it.”

Eris chewed on the inside of her cheek. She’d actually considered Mason several times, but her tiny crush on him never stacked up to the potential she had with Levi. Aside from Jake, he was the only one she truly saw herself having a shot at a future with. But just barely. It was enough to pick him again for the recoupling.

“If it wasn’t going to be you, I thought I could make it work with him,” she said. “We got on well enough, and I know he regretted the kiss.”

“And after?”

Her lips curled into a small scowl. “He lost my trust after Cherrygate, and from then on, he started losing my interest. He was such an arsehole for expecting me to blindly fall back into his arms after what he did. Just because I stayed with him didn’t mean I was set on him.”

On cue, Eris observed the many clips that visibly showed her feelings for Levi fade. She’d long stopped cuddling with him in bed, and she subtly shirked away from his touch. After the disastrous Lie Detector challenge and that night’s recoupling, it was painfully clear that her smiles towards him were becoming forced too.

Instead, more of Eris and Jake rolled on the screen. Shots of them talking in both quiet and carefree tones or laughing with one another played in succession, as though they were spending every waking moment together.

A particular clip played of them hanging out on the bean bags, Jake making conversation as he mindlessly looked out at the Spanish hills. But Eris was staring right at him, a small smile on her face while she hung on to his every word.

The video transitioned again, showing them in the kitchen. It was her talking this time while she made a messy sandwich for herself and probably complained about the lack of crisps in the villa. Jake had been leaning on the counter next to her, his gaze flitting to her lips every few seconds.

Eris was floored. God, they had been so blind. How had neither of them caught each other’s stares or smiles? How had they missed the fact that they always subconsciously sat next to each other for meals, or the way they knew exactly how the other took their tea?

Their inside jokes, their shared looks of exasperation, their thoughtless touching. The way Eris would straighten out his tie before recouplings, the way Jake would adjust the clasp of her necklace back to the nape of her neck. Their small interactions were constant, each of them a blow to her chest.

She wanted to scoff. They looked bloody ridiculous dancing around each other. They looked...

Eris paused. She blinked at the screen.

Oh.

They looked like they were in love.

She felt the air leave her lungs as the fluttering in her abdomen consumed her whole.

Oh.

Well. At least she knew it wasn’t indigestion she was feeling. It still made her want to lay down.

Watching her journey through these clips didn’t show her anything new. It just opened her eyes to something she’s unknowingly come to familiarize herself with. That relentless fluttering — the warm, tingling sensation she always felt whenever she was around Jake. She knew it well. She’s just never been able to place a name to it until now.

Love.

She loved him. She loved Jake.

The revelation made her dizzy. She would have swayed if not for Jake’s arm around her shoulders.

“Oh my god,” Eris exhaled to herself.

Jake groaned under his breath, unaware of the earth-shattering epiphany she’d just experienced. He commented on their obliviousness all the same.

“I know. It’s almost embarrassing seeing us now. Like, yeah, I would look at you a lot. I just didn’t know I...” He rubbed the back of his neck and grimaced. “I didn’t know how much I did it. I didn’t know how much you did it either. But I probably would have dismissed it as something else anyway.”

Eris didn’t respond, her heart pounding fiercely inside her rib cage. Did he realize it too? Did he notice the language they’d unwittingly developed with one another, each gesture an unspoken but glaring truth?

It was right there. All this time, it was right in front of her, dangling in her face. Since the first day, they’d been leading up to it. She could see it now.

She loved him.

Did he love her too?

Mind reeling, Eris stared blankly as the video went on, displaying another recoupling and Lucy’s arrival in the villa.

Was it too soon for her? They had only gotten together three days ago, and every day since, they had already taken huge steps towards a serious relationship. But was she ready to admit that she was in love?

As soon as the question crossed her mind, she knew the answer.

Of course she was. The amount of time didn’t matter. Eris was confident in her feelings for him. They were stronger than they’ve ever been than with anyone else, and there was no doubt in her mind that they were only going to strengthen even further.

Plain and simple, he was it for her. No matter what her future looked like, she knew she wanted him by her side. No matter if he didn’t love her now, she knew they’d both get there.

Eris waited all summer for him. She was willing to wait even longer, as long as it took to hear those same words come out of his mouth.

Her cheeks hurt. It registered for her a moment later that it was because she was grinning wide enough to split her face in two.

Jake noticed her expression when he glanced at her, but he chalked it up to the video still playing on screen. It was displaying the scene on the terrace when they admitted their feelings for one another. The crowd whooped at the kiss they shared. Although for the sake of national television, the producers edited it to keep it tame.

Jake leaned down to whisper in her ear, his lips brushing against her skin. A delightful shiver ran through her spine.

“You made me the happiest bloke in the world that day. Seriously, I thought I was going to pass out. I’ve never been so terrified in my life.”

Eris gave a small laugh, barely an exhalation of air. She couldn’t seem to catch her breath. She loved him so much.

“You look great, though. Terrified, yes, but great. Only you could pull that off.”

“Well, I suppose they call me Sweetcheeks for a reason, yeah?”

“Careful there,” she murmured. “You’re liable to let all your little fans inflate that ego of yours.”

He snickered. “You sound jealous.” Gaping, Eris snapped her head towards him, but he cut her off. “You have no reason to be, Eris. Besides, you’re the only one who knows exactly how sweet my cheeks —”

“Jake, oh my god,” she choked out as her face flamed. Even if the audience couldn’t hear them, they were still mic’d up.

His laugh was pure sunshine. It spread throughout her body and lingered on her temple when he kissed her there.

“I absolutely adore you,” he sighed.

Eris bit her lip. The words were on the tip of her tongue, but she wanted to wait. He deserved more than a rushed confession in the middle of a massive crowd.

The final recoupling played. Jake looked more excited than he’s ever been the entire summer standing by the fire pit and calling her name. That same enthusiasm lasted for the rest of the show. It was evident in the following clips of them making their relationship official, their date by the beach, their last moment on the terrace. She looked just as ecstatic as him. She looked like a different person altogether.

Because you’re in love, the voice in her head reminded her. That fluttering refused to cease.

The screen finally went blank, and the crowd burst into raucous applause. Jake rubbed her arm.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” he asked.

Eris laughed wryly. If not for that recap, she wouldn’t have had the staggering realization that she was so ridiculously in love, it rendered her breathless.

“Not at all,” she said. “I’d still love a glass of wine, though.”

He smiled. “Whatever the lady wants.”

A vibration in his pocket made him glance down. He took out his phone and raised his eyebrows at her at the text he received. It showed up on the screen above them too, for the audience to follow along.

Congratulations, Jake and Eris. The public voted for you as their favorite couple. You are the winners of Love Island 2018, and you now have a chance to receive the £50,000 prize!

#cantbuymelove #thefinalchoice

Eris felt her own phone vibrate in her hand, and she held it up for Jake to read.

However, it’s not quite that simple. You’ve spent the whole summer together. Your relationship has been tested every day, and today is no different.

In front of you are two envelopes. One of these envelopes contains the £50,000 prize money, and the other contains nothing.

Eris and Jake raised their heads and noticed the stand at the front of the stage. On either side were two large, golden envelopes.

In a moment, you will both take one envelope. The person who gets the winning envelope will have a BIG decision to make.

They must choose whether they want to share the money with their partner, or keep all of it for themselves. If you decide to keep it, you will go home with the full £50,000 prize, and your partner will go home with nothing. If you share it, you will both go home with £25,000.

It’s time to make your choice. Has this summer been about love or money?

Eris held back an eye roll. It was comical how easy of a decision this was. It was barely a decision at all.

Jake seemed to think similarly. His lips lifted into a smile as he turned to her.

“Choose carefully, now,” he said. “I’ll even let you pick first.”

The audience was quiet as she extracted herself from his grip and walked up to the stand. Flippantly, she took the envelope closest to her, then Jake strolled up beside her and took the other one. He peered at it, and at the last second, he snatched the envelope out of her hands and replaced it with his.

He grinned when Eris hit his arm with it.

“I can’t say I don’t want to have the pleasure of seeing that money in my hands,” he said, shrugging.

She scoffed and gestured at him. “Please, by all means. I’ll happily watch you come out empty-handed.”

Jake opened the envelope. He barked out a laugh and showed her the card.

Empty.

Triumphantly, she ripped her own envelope open. She was greeted by the lovely sight of glittery pink letters that read £50,000.

Eris stuck her tongue out at him. “That’s what you get for stealing from a girl.”

“I suppose I should have known better,” he conceded, his eyes twinkling. “So what’s it going to be, Eris?”

She took a deep breath and smiled sweetly at him. “I’m going to take the money.”

The crowd gasped, but Jake’s grin was crooked as he shook his head. The fact that he trusted her so much that he refused to even consider her bluff made her stomach riot.

I love you, she thought wildly as she met his bright eyes. I love you, I love you, I love you —

“You’re going to be the death of me, aren’t you?” he sighed fondly.

Eris laughed and threw the card down before launching herself at him. His arms wrapped tight around her as he picked her up, laughing alongside her.

“Of course I’m splitting the money with you!” she exclaimed.

The audience’s cheers were deafening, but Eris could only hear the sound of Jake murmuring in her ear.

“I can’t believe we won!” he said. “I can’t believe how much the public liked us. I can’t believe I switched envelopes.”

Eris chuckled as he set her down and cupped her face. She almost died at the tenderness in his expression.

“And I can’t believe I get to spend every day doing this to you,” he sighed before leaning in.

His lips were soft against hers. He kissed her languidly, as though they weren’t snogging in front of their friends and families or a crowd of millions; as though he had all the time in the world with nothing else to do but to stay locked in place with her, just like that.

The voice over the loudspeakers congratulating them tore her and Jake apart, then they turned to wave and grin at the crowd’s applause. Eris could just make out the other Islanders off to the side, who were either clapping politely or cheering just as loudly as the rest of the audience.

She scanned the sea of bodies to find her family and friends, then Jake tugging her in the opposite direction diverted her attention. His face was the very definition of joyful.

“Come and meet my mum!” he said. “She’s going to love you.”

Dazedly, Eris let him take her hand and guide her off stage, but before they got too far, she pulled him to a stop. Jake turned around and knitted his eyebrows together a little.

She wanted to wait until they were alone. She really did. She thought she had the willpower to hold off until she found the perfect moment together.

But she loved him with a fierceness that she was quickly learning was not something she could hide. It was vivid and relentless and it wanted to burst from every fiber of her being.

Her willpower was always shot to hell whenever Jake was concerned anyway. This was no different.

So it was without consent that the words tumbled out of her, unable to be tamed.

Eris looked up at him and took in the affection in his gaze. He squeezed her hand, and that did it for her.

She breathed, “I love you.”

Jake stilled. His widened eyes met hers.

A moment later, they were filled with unshed tears. His hands very slowly raised to cup her face. They shook like she was the most precious thing he’d ever held. She couldn’t help her own eyes from welling up too.

Jake’s voice was hoarse when he spoke. “Again,” he whispered. “Say it again.”

Her smile was tremulous. “Jake, I love you—”

He was on her the millisecond she finished getting the words out, capturing her bottom lip in a desperate kiss. Caught off-guard, Eris gasped, and he grabbed the opportunity to stroke his tongue with hers. Her head was swimming when he pulled back just a touch, brushing their lips together.

“I love you too,” he choked out. “I love you so much. I’m crazy about you, Eris.”

She could have crumpled at his feet. Eris knew she’d be overwhelmed when she heard him say those words back. What she didn’t expect was for it to send her to the verge of delirium. That telltale fluttering swallowed her whole as she let out a noise that was half a sob, the other half a strangled laugh.

“This is absolutely mental,” she said, thinking of how they only met each other mere weeks ago. “Are we mental?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

The tears fell from his eyes, and without thought, she wiped them away from his cheeks. Jake smiled as he cupped her face firmer.

“But I don’t care,” he breathed. “I don’t care about anything but loving you and being loved by you.”

She cried harder.  His ability to reduce her to a blubbering mess with words alone was the last thing she needed right now with a million cameras potentially filming their every move.

“Stop,” she pleaded. “Please. You’re going to ruin my makeup at this rate.”

Jake chuckled and gently kissed her forehead. Screw the prize money. She didn’t want to do much else other than to drag him to the closest bedroom and have her way with him.

Eris and Jake pulled apart when a few members of the crew hurried over with tissues and more makeup to retouch their faces. Once they were ready again, he wasted no time gathering her in a tender embrace and sighing into her hair. She closed her eyes in bliss, savoring another few moments with him.

“I suppose it was only fitting that we end our journey in the villa with you being the one to shock me with a confession this time,” he said.

Eris smirked. “You’ve caused me too many near heart attacks. I was left with no choice but to return the favor.”

“Ah. Your retribution, then, is it?”

“Yes. Ruthless, remember? Don’t think you’ve seen the last of my wrath, either.”

“You’re so weird, love,” he chuckled.

Her heart clenched at the endearment. She made it a personal goal right then to get him to call her that as often as possible.

“Gotta keep you on your toes,” Eris breathed. “You’ll never know with me.”

She felt him smile and hug her tighter.

“Yeah, my mum’s going to love you.”

Eris spent all summer trying to stuff down her feelings for Jake, but it was a fruitless endeavor. She was tired of shying away. So at every opportunity throughout the night, Eris would whisper those three words to him, without reservation or fear. To anyone else, they probably were sickeningly over the top and mushy. She didn’t care. It was worth it to see Jake give her that intense look of utter devotion, a look that told her he’d do anything she wanted if she asked him of it.

She said it when she met his mum and older sister, and when he met her own parents. She said it during the party, after their interviews, on the ride to their hotel.

She gasped it as he stripped her of her clothes. She moaned it as he rocked into her. She whispered it as they lay in each other’s arms in a sweaty mess of limbs.

“I love you too,” Jake sighed into her neck, and a smile spread across her lips.

There were few certainties she could count on in her life, but something in her knew without a doubt that Jake was always going to be one of them. And as he held her in his strong arms, she vowed to be the same for him.

Jake took notice of her wistful expression and caressed her hip. “Everything alright?”

Smiling wider, Eris nodded as she burrowed deeper into his warmth, drowning in the fluttering that overtook her.

Everything was perfect.

[batupermata]

Review NiftyPlanet Project

NiftyPlanet - Decentralized international NFT marketplace.

#NFT #NFTCommunity #niftyplanet #niftyplanetnews #NFTmarketplace #digitalart

What is the main aim for the NiftyPlanet project?

NiftyPlanet is an NFT marketplace and minting platform that utilizes the NFPL token to empower users who actively interact with the platform.

Users on the NiftyPlanet platform can buy and sell NFT’s (non-fungible tokens) created for rare and unique digital items such as music, artwork, trading cards, experience-sharing, hybrid digital/physical, and in the near future, even physical items.

NiftyPlanet’s plans extend far beyond being just another marketplace for digital collectibles and art. We intend to bridge the digital and physical world via blockchain technology to make it possible for collectibles and creations borne from both worlds to be shared with the world in the same exciting place.

We also want to give an international voice to creators that have never ventured past their own “neighborhoods” by connecting creators with an exploding International Crypto community.

Finally, we plan to provide a place where creators can monetize their creativity and even make a living from it, something especially needed in the wake of the globalist-created plannedemic, inhuman lockdowns and global financial destruction of 2020–2021. NiftyPlanet also wants to give back to all of its users and will offer rewards for active participation on the platform (creating and selling, collecting, voting and moderating, etc.). NiftyPlanet plans to provide the opportunity for farming to earn, as well.

The NiftyPlanet protocol is a solution to the limitations faced by the intellectual property market, including licensing and paperwork challenges, piracy issues and right-protection, limited or subdued revenue, and more. The advent of NFT’s represents an awesome alternative to everyone.

NIftyPlanet Video Guides - NFTとは？

https://youtu.be/8qApW2D_sn4

Why is the NiftyPlanet project team remaining anonymous?

We believe that new era of privacy and also private money is here. The world is changing very fast and people want to have a new approach in their relationship with the world at large, including the economy and government. It is clear, especially after the tyranny that has arisen from the insane and and irrational response to the “pandemic” that the NWO and its buddies in the new Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex, are currently trying to take over the world, and or kill us all. We feel that it is essential that we all begin guarding and protecting our privacy and rights before everything we own and love is gone or usurped by the “powers that shouldn’t be” either via their surveillance, assisted by other NWO buddies such as the tech giants we all know and love. Our own efforts start with this project. Those megalomaniacs aren’t welcome to participate in our community nor do we want anything to do with them thus we choose to remain anonymous.

We also feel there is too much pressure on companies and individuals to pay exorbitantly high taxes. And besides the obvious fact that taxes are too high, governments have shown perpetually that they are completely irresponsible in how they use taxes they collect from hard working citizens the world round; wasting and misusing funds for personal ends such as visiting prostitute establishments, rebuilding the same road many multiple times just so they can receive the same budget as the previous year, and last but not least to start wars, spending billions worldwide to create weapons of destruction to kill people in foreign countries that the taxpayers have no desire to have conflict with at all in the first place. But saying all this does not mean that we are against the taxes completely. In fact, we will gladly support the payment of taxes when they will be used for the people that bust their asses to pay them, and not to benefit the psychopaths who are currently in control of the spending of the taxes they collect from all of us. Taxes should migrated to a cryptocurrency basis and the method of payment should be changed from advanced payment — where you pay VAT, consumption taxes or taxes from your income from trading, to the “payment for the results”. In business area it’s called “Pay for Performance Principle”. In this payment for results scenario, for example, if you were happy with how the roads look around us that were built by your government, you would go to the DeFi Tax platform and pay directly to the company who built those roads. The same with your local Police force or any other kind of service that are currently funded by the thousands of types of taxes collected around the world. This way of paying taxes after you see the results or actual use of those taxes will motivate governments to transform and become more effective, efficient and responsible, and it will improve the world and environment around us. In our opinion, VAT that we are all paying in shops is absolutely enough for the government to survive. The rest of the Taxes we will pay in the future, once governments recognize and respect that The Era of Private money is here and we will no longer forgive their irresponsible use of our hard-earned income.

Cryptocurrency gives us our power to control our governments once more, the way they should be. Until the governments can prove they can be responsible and will not misuse or simply steal taxed money from the people we have no reason to hand any over to them. Another important reason for remaining anonymous, is routine paperwork and other extra costs. Once we register any kind of a earth-based company we need to hire a lawyer open a physical office, get and send correspondence in perpetuity. And all these things decrease our efficiency and effectiveness. In our initial stage we can not allow ourselves to waste such important resources as a time. We would better off investing this time to improve your user experience on our platform and make your life easier and more interesting, and to provide more creative and financial opportunities for our users.

The structure of NFPL token distribution

The NiftyPlanet platform is a semi self-funded platform. Half of the funds for the development and platform launch were provided by a few pre-seed investors.

Total token supply is 1 billion tokens.

There are 10 pre-seed investors of this project. In total they control 83M tokens. Additionally, they own 29% interest in the project.

2 main Founders control 8% of all token supply (80M tokens).

Tokens have been distributed to 2 founders, 2 team members and 10 pre-seed investors.

Before we hold our IDO which is planned for June 2021, founders’ and pre-seed investors’ tokens will not move at all. The main reason we are doing this is because we believe that people who participate in IDO’s should have a guarantee that the team and investors will not sell all of their tokens all at once before the IDO starts.

In the graphic you can see the entity structure of token allocation with exact ETH addresses. Until the end of the actual IDO, there will be no NFPL transactions originating from project or investor wallets.

Founder 1 (4.00%)

0x313a82316f2591ecdff509699f80ff434b4f23a1

Founder 2 (4.00%)

0xb85d39145755ca7cbd7a0703327dd0ad7fc7137c

Pre-seed investor 1 (2.00%)

0x3fb9bea7a24b70bc7588c5c25815f5d6a5936cdd

Pre-seed investor 2 (1.15%)

0x05fc4d24c1ccd25b69b8d072f4234d37d2f26bb3

Pre-seed investor 3 (0.60%)

0x9664a89a0627106d02a0143f3e6b8cc8403070cd

Pre-seed investor 4 (0.55%)

0x6ada63ea649c558718da343f09be19421724f6a6

Pre-seed investor 5 (0.40%)

0xcbc297537f30d383460862e86c3c7c332b2f1eda

Pre-seed investor 6 (0.40%)

0xbf9c915abf2003da52a6e67ae6bcd2daba6779a1

Pre-seed investor 7 (0.40%)

0x9cf8e867328eb1d35c6637c5c75fd7851d879ef5

Pre-seed investor 8 (0.40%)

These tokens will be distributed after IDO

Pre-seed investor 9 (0.40%)

0xe81C6E1B75dD8fA589Ce0389dEc305e899FA943D

Pre-seed investor 10 (2.00%)

0x58E2966cA92Eb9FebE5f6c05DA653E464aF2531A

Core team member 11 (1%)

0x6802bf043ECA770F7c1F4A03C9D68F9D181591fe

Core team member 12 (1%)

0xeAe5700167e71E88f2D20CDf5E7B743C8EB79533

Marketing (10.00%)

0xC5F62cCDB455800c1daa1e8f6b0678A77F71B756

Main address with rest of the NFPL tokens (81.70%)

0xee0ab4691476244d1633d8d1197d0a66def7e5a9

Platform Roadmap

Development of "NFT Creation Engine" and marketplace.

Launching of marketplace Beta Testing, presenting exclusive Drops.

Collaboration with show-biz talents, artists, and creators in Japan and China for Drops.

Implementation of invitation system/Start reward system for users.

Opening of NFT creation to all content creators.

Official launch and mass marketing in Japan and China.

IDO (Initial Dex Offering) in Japan, China, and Internationally.

Voting system integration and delegation of Management to the community.

#niftyplanet #nifties #NFT #NFTCommunity #digitalart #NFTmarketplace

NiftyPlanet — Where Are We Heading?

NiftyPlanet is the world’s marketplace for Nifties. Nifties are authentic and verifiably unique digital items you can truly own. Our team has been working hard to create something worthy of the attention of our community. After quite a lot of testing of the platform, we are happy, excited, and proud to announce that we are officially launching tomorrow, June, 19th! Our first drop is now scheduled, so more info will be published on our social media shortly.

Let’s talk about some things that you can expect in the next few days. On June 22, we are conducting our first Chinese AMA, so make you follow our WeChat and have your questions ready.

Another important piece of news is that NiftyPlanet is starting its first bounty campaign. During the next 8 weeks, bounty hunters will have a chance to earn $9,000 worth of NFPL tokens.

There will be 160 winners in total. At the end of the bounty campaign, we will count the number of stakes earned in all bounty programs and reward the best achievers. To increase your chances of winning, participate in several bounty programs. More details and rules will be published separately.

For more information about niftyplanet

WEBSITE: https://niftyplanet.co/

MEDIUM: https://niftyplanet.medium.com/

TELEGRAM : https://t.me/NiftyPlanet

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/PlanetNifty

YOU TUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7iTV9RFgEOQsxhOaKfITDw

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nifty.planet/

Reddit: https://discord.com/channels/829112237247561738/829112237247561740

Author:

Bitcointalk username: Batu permata

Profile link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1875984

Telegram name: @yunicomel001

ETH address: 0xA5d3c9288F1C6A4a9D1298456DBCcDf9e2811896

[kettumbar]

NiftyPlanet

NiftyPlanet is an NFT marketplace and minting platform that utilizes the NFPL token to empower users who actively interact with the platform.

#NFT #NFTCommunity #niftyplanet #niftyplanetnews #NFTmarketplace #digitalart

What is the main aim for the NiftyPlanet project?

NiftyPlanet is an NFT marketplace and minting platform that utilizes the NFPL token to empower users who actively interact with the platform.

Users on the NiftyPlanet platform can buy and sell NFT’s (non-fungible tokens) created for rare and unique digital items such as music, artwork, trading cards, experience-sharing, hybrid digital/physical, and in the near future, even physical items.

NiftyPlanet’s plans extend far beyond being just another marketplace for digital collectibles and art. We intend to bridge the digital and physical world via blockchain technology to make it possible for collectibles and creations borne from both worlds to be shared with the world in the same exciting place.

We also want to give an international voice to creators that have never ventured past their own “neighborhoods” by connecting creators with an exploding International Crypto community.

Finally, we plan to provide a place where creators can monetize their creativity and even make a living from it, something especially needed in the wake of the globalist-created plannedemic, inhuman lockdowns and global financial destruction of 2020–2021. NiftyPlanet also wants to give back to all of its users and will offer rewards for active participation on the platform (creating and selling, collecting, voting and moderating, etc.). NiftyPlanet plans to provide the opportunity for farming to earn, as well.

The NiftyPlanet protocol is a solution to the limitations faced by the intellectual property market, including licensing and paperwork challenges, piracy issues and right-protection, limited or subdued revenue, and more. The advent of NFT’s represents an awesome alternative to everyone.

NIftyPlanet Video Guides - NFTとは？

https://youtu.be/8qApW2D_sn4

Why is the NiftyPlanet project team remaining anonymous?

We believe that new era of privacy and also private money is here. The world is changing very fast and people want to have a new approach in their relationship with the world at large, including the economy and government. It is clear, especially after the tyranny that has arisen from the insane and and irrational response to the “pandemic” that the NWO and its buddies in the new Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex, are currently trying to take over the world, and or kill us all. We feel that it is essential that we all begin guarding and protecting our privacy and rights before everything we own and love is gone or usurped by the “powers that shouldn’t be” either via their surveillance, assisted by other NWO buddies such as the tech giants we all know and love. Our own efforts start with this project. Those megalomaniacs aren’t welcome to participate in our community nor do we want anything to do with them thus we choose to remain anonymous.

We also feel there is too much pressure on companies and individuals to pay exorbitantly high taxes. And besides the obvious fact that taxes are too high, governments have shown perpetually that they are completely irresponsible in how they use taxes they collect from hard working citizens the world round; wasting and misusing funds for personal ends such as visiting prostitute establishments, rebuilding the same road many multiple times just so they can receive the same budget as the previous year, and last but not least to start wars, spending billions worldwide to create weapons of destruction to kill people in foreign countries that the taxpayers have no desire to have conflict with at all in the first place. But saying all this does not mean that we are against the taxes completely. In fact, we will gladly support the payment of taxes when they will be used for the people that bust their asses to pay them, and not to benefit the psychopaths who are currently in control of the spending of the taxes they collect from all of us. Taxes should migrated to a cryptocurrency basis and the method of payment should be changed from advanced payment — where you pay VAT, consumption taxes or taxes from your income from trading, to the “payment for the results”. In business area it’s called “Pay for Performance Principle”. In this payment for results scenario, for example, if you were happy with how the roads look around us that were built by your government, you would go to the DeFi Tax platform and pay directly to the company who built those roads. The same with your local Police force or any other kind of service that are currently funded by the thousands of types of taxes collected around the world. This way of paying taxes after you see the results or actual use of those taxes will motivate governments to transform and become more effective, efficient and responsible, and it will improve the world and environment around us. In our opinion, VAT that we are all paying in shops is absolutely enough for the government to survive. The rest of the Taxes we will pay in the future, once governments recognize and respect that The Era of Private money is here and we will no longer forgive their irresponsible use of our hard-earned income.

Cryptocurrency gives us our power to control our governments once more, the way they should be. Until the governments can prove they can be responsible and will not misuse or simply steal taxed money from the people we have no reason to hand any over to them. Another important reason for remaining anonymous, is routine paperwork and other extra costs. Once we register any kind of a earth-based company we need to hire a lawyer open a physical office, get and send correspondence in perpetuity. And all these things decrease our efficiency and effectiveness. In our initial stage we can not allow ourselves to waste such important resources as a time. We would better off investing this time to improve your user experience on our platform and make your life easier and more interesting, and to provide more creative and financial opportunities for our users.

The structure of NFPL token distribution

The NiftyPlanet platform is a semi self-funded platform. Half of the funds for the development and platform launch were provided by a few pre-seed investors.

Total token supply is 1 billion tokens.

There are 10 pre-seed investors of this project. In total they control 83M tokens. Additionally, they own 29% interest in the project.

2 main Founders control 8% of all token supply (80M tokens).

Tokens have been distributed to 2 founders, 2 team members and 10 pre-seed investors.

Before we hold our IDO which is planned for June 2021, founders’ and pre-seed investors’ tokens will not move at all. The main reason we are doing this is because we believe that people who participate in IDO’s should have a guarantee that the team and investors will not sell all of their tokens all at once before the IDO starts.

In the graphic you can see the entity structure of token allocation with exact ETH addresses. Until the end of the actual IDO, there will be no NFPL transactions originating from project or investor wallets.

Founder 1 (4.00%)

0x313a82316f2591ecdff509699f80ff434b4f23a1

Founder 2 (4.00%)

0xb85d39145755ca7cbd7a0703327dd0ad7fc7137c

Pre-seed investor 1 (2.00%)

0x3fb9bea7a24b70bc7588c5c25815f5d6a5936cdd

Pre-seed investor 2 (1.15%)

0x05fc4d24c1ccd25b69b8d072f4234d37d2f26bb3

Pre-seed investor 3 (0.60%)

0x9664a89a0627106d02a0143f3e6b8cc8403070cd

Pre-seed investor 4 (0.55%)

0x6ada63ea649c558718da343f09be19421724f6a6

Pre-seed investor 5 (0.40%)

0xcbc297537f30d383460862e86c3c7c332b2f1eda

Pre-seed investor 6 (0.40%)

0xbf9c915abf2003da52a6e67ae6bcd2daba6779a1

Pre-seed investor 7 (0.40%)

0x9cf8e867328eb1d35c6637c5c75fd7851d879ef5

Pre-seed investor 8 (0.40%)

These tokens will be distributed after IDO

Pre-seed investor 9 (0.40%)

0xe81C6E1B75dD8fA589Ce0389dEc305e899FA943D

Pre-seed investor 10 (2.00%)

0x58E2966cA92Eb9FebE5f6c05DA653E464aF2531A

Core team member 11 (1%)

0x6802bf043ECA770F7c1F4A03C9D68F9D181591fe

Core team member 12 (1%)

0xeAe5700167e71E88f2D20CDf5E7B743C8EB79533

Marketing (10.00%)

0xC5F62cCDB455800c1daa1e8f6b0678A77F71B756

Main address with rest of the NFPL tokens (81.70%)

0xee0ab4691476244d1633d8d1197d0a66def7e5a9

Platform Roadmap

Development of "NFT Creation Engine" and marketplace.

Launching of marketplace Beta Testing, presenting exclusive Drops.

Collaboration with show-biz talents, artists, and creators in Japan and China for Drops.

Implementation of invitation system/Start reward system for users.

Opening of NFT creation to all content creators.

Official launch and mass marketing in Japan and China.

IDO (Initial Dex Offering) in Japan, China, and Internationally.

Voting system integration and delegation of Management to the community.

#niftyplanet #nifties #NFT #NFTCommunity #digitalart #NFTmarketplace

BlockTalks x Nifty Planet AMA Transcript!

We recently hosted an AMA with Nifty Planet, on June 26th at 1 PM UTC. Many of you might have participated or many of not. But we make sure no one missed out from the knowledge shared by Toku Mei, CCO of Nifty Planet. So here we are up with the AMA transcript, for those who missed the live session, this blog post will be a saver & feeder of knowledge for them.

Introduction Questions Asked By Team BlockTalks!

Q1. Could you please introduce Nifty Planet to our community in layman’s term?

Ans — Yes. NiftyPlanet is a web.3.0 platform that built based on Ethereum blockchain. From the start it is place where users can buy NFTs from the famous people and original NiftyPlanet NFTs. In the future, our platform will be fully decentralized and be managed by a Foundation.

Q2. What are the advantages of Nifty Planet to other alternatives in the Blockchain field?

Ans — I would say that there are many differences between the NiftyPlanet and other NFT markets but 2 of them are the biggest to us. First of all we are preparing for any drop together with creators in advance. Including pricing, special mechanics, advertisement. That is why all NFTs have bigger values for the holders than NFTs from rest of the markets. Any creator have to pass Due Diligence process. But at the same time we are web.3.0 system it means that all the assets are under the user’s control.

Second biggest difference is that we plan to attract not just artists of creative people we plan to adopt NFT technology for many different industries and help to join crypto spase different companies and independent people. And our customization can help to make it easier for them and increase the value for their products (NFTs) for everybody.

Q3. What are the major milestones Nifty Planet achieved so far & what are in the future pipeline?

Ans — First of all, we created an Ambassador program and have already gained three Ambassadors to work with us. We have also started our first drop and already sold the majority of those NFT’s. Additionally, we have already built a solid team of more than 10 international team members. And we have our own system that was created by our own engineers based on proven smart contract technology. We have already contracted with a few famous artists to launch NFT drops on our platform starting next month, and we are also in negotiations with at least 10 more international creators.

We plan to be leaders in offering hybrid NFT’s by merging physical and digital offerings on our platform. We already have many offers from international creators and businesses that wish to use our platform to sell physical items as NFTs. Additionally, we will also offer what we call, “Functional NFT’s” which will provide the ability to offer an unlimited number of possible services and knowledge-sharing that will not only open up new channels of commerce and financial opportunity, but will also connect people that would never have been able to connect directly before.

Questions Asked on Twitter For Nifty Planet Team!

Q1. At this moment, which one the most Necessary for your project: 1. Investors 2. Community 3. Market/Exchange and why?

Ans — At the moment, for us, Community is the most important of these three. Of course, we welcome more investors ;) but Since we have the technology, a plan, and a growing list of creators excited to create unique and useful NFT’s together with us, what we need next is more people to share it all with, and to benefit with us as we create opportunities for everyone that gets involved with us. We hope in turn that our community will share their ideas about how we can grow and create more opportunities from the NiftyPlanet platform, and together we can bring more and more people around the world to join this incredible world of blockchain and decentralization, which is a big goal for us.

Q2. What other partnerships are you looking for and what is the focus of these partnerships?

Ans — Well, we really want to push the limits of NFT’s and so we are and will be actively seeking new partnerships with individuals and businesses that have great new ideas of ways to use NFT technology for Art, for business, for communication, for socializing and more. We don’t claim to know it all and we all know that there is power in numbers, and so we are open to the ideas, brains and creativity of all of those in our community and hope they openly share and offer their ideas with us. Think "functional NFT’s" and the potential is limitless.

Q3. Telling about real world adoption. Most of the user are still not aware about Blockchainchain and Blockchainchain related products. So, how Your project can raise awareness about their project with non-crypto users too?

Ans — You are exactly right. For the first time in maybe thousands of years, we "common" people have a chance to take back our freedoms from the "Mis-Leaders" and Elite classes, and create wealth without worry of being extorted by overreaching governments. So this is one of our big goals. We want to help more and more people become involved in blockchain and cryptocurrency and understand its implications and usefulness. By selecting our initial creators carefully by hand, we can select artists and creators and influencers that also are in line with our goals to wake more people up to the freedom, opportunities and benefits of blockchain, and are willing to reach out to their vast numbers of fans, most of whom are not aware of blockchain, and invite them to become involved in it by learning and talking about and buying and selling the NFT’s created by those artists and influencers. And we as a platform will do everything we can to onboard those new members by providing a friendly and easy to use platform.

Q4. You plan to have an IDO (Initial Dex Offering) in Japan, China and Internationally. So,why did you focus first in Japan and China? Aside from this countries,which other country you plan to have an IDO? Can you share some details about your plan IDO of PlanetNifty?

Ans — The main reason is that we are big fans of Asia and have spent a lot of time in Asia living and working and playing. Thus we have a lot of friends and strategic partners that can, and want to help us grow both our business and our community organically and confidently. We love and know Asia well and are very comfortable working and creating in its markets. We also are lucky enough to have direct connections and relations with a large number of really wonderfully genius artists and creators whose work and ideas we want to share with the rest of the world. This why we focused on the Asian market to start business and our IDO’s as well. We will share more details about IDO very soon so please watch our Telegram group.

Q5. If I like Nifties but I am not a creator or artist, how can I be part of this project? Is it exclusive for those with creative skills, or is there an inductive one for beginners?

Ans — Thats a good question. To be honest, in order to build a strong business and community we are focused on well known artists from the start. But we do have plans to open up to more and more up-and-coming artists and creators over time, especially those that propose new and unique uses for NFT’s, and ways to use NFT’s create more interest and opportunities for our community. But even before that, we want to encourage people that want to start learning how to create NFT’s, so we plan to provide a way to access our NFT engine to create your own NFT’s for practice, or for fun, or to try and sell in any of the marketplaces that accepts brand new artists. We will also introduce our partner NFT markets where you can join right away.

Questions Asked by our BlockTalks Community Members during live Session to Nifty Planet Team!!

Q1. It is easy to claim that your project as well as the product is good, however it takes so much effort to prove. What are the qualities and security that Nifty Planet is worth investing for especially that you’re new and is anonymous, how will we able to assure the stability of the project and how will you stay up to date on the latest tokens and coins that the market has to offer?

Ans — Well to be honest, we here at NiftyPlanet have been around the crypto space for a while and we have seen a LOT of crap and scams, and we have also been left high dry by fake or undedicated project teams. One of the reasons we started this project, is not only because the idea of NFT’s is really awesome, but because we want to give back to all the people that were let down in the past, by creating a project that people could get excited about, become deeply involved in, that we could directly interact with and share ideas with, and build something that is not only fun and useful but creates financial opportunity for everyone involved so we can all become more free and happy.

Q2. How can I trust your project? If you can give any proper information about it, I would like to invest in your project.

Ans — Well, although we are keeping our identities quiet for now, we have gone to great lengths to be as forthcoming and transparent as possible. We have even published our and our investors wallet addresses and of course our contract address right in our literature (website and our medium blog), we intend to be as transparent, honest as possible and always, think of our community first.

Q3. Do you have any plans for ambassador programme role for your project growth and awareness? If yes how may I apply?

Ans — Absolutely! Please contact us through our Telegram group or through our website if you believe you can offer solid support that will enhance our growth.

Q4. Is your project a local or global project? How many communites, do you have for non-english users?

Ans — We are definitely global > our team is international, our creators are international, and our investors and users are international. At the moment, we already have English, Russian and Chinese communities. and we will keep adding more and more.

Q5. How will NiftyPlanet bring the digital and physical world together through blockchain technology? What strategies have you developed to achieve this goal?

Ans — We have a LOT of companies and individuals with really cool and useful digital and non-digital things that they want to make into NFT’s. we are working face to face daily with these people to brainstorm new ways to combine and connect real and digital and we have some very interesting cases in the works already.

Q6. How can we invest in the project? Do we have a minimum requirement to be eligible?

Ans — We welcome large investors and have various options to partner with us and we communicate directly about such details. We will be holding Both ICO and IDOs. Please watch our channels closely for more details about these to participate as an individual investor. And of course, please visit our platform and hopefully buy some of our original and creator-based NFT’s.

Q7. How big is your team ? Are you a public team or not? Please tell us more about team background?

Ans — We are more than 10 i think now. Collectively, we are a team of Crypto pioneers with experience in many different areas.

Between us, we have many years of experience with IT startups, blockchain technology, ICO’s, traditional Art & Music, marketing, fundraising, digital Art and Music production, show business, community development and social media.

Q8. Staking is one of the strategies to attract users and hold them long term. Does your great project have plan about Staking?

Ans — Yup we will have several ways for hodlers to earn with their tokens.

NiftyPlanet — Where Are We Heading?

NiftyPlanet is the world’s marketplace for Nifties. Nifties are authentic and verifiably unique digital items you can truly own. Our team has been working hard to create something worthy of the attention of our community. After quite a lot of testing of the platform, we are happy, excited, and proud to announce that we are officially launching tomorrow, June, 19th! Our first drop is now scheduled, so more info will be published on our social media shortly.

Let’s talk about some things that you can expect in the next few days. On June 22, we are conducting our first Chinese AMA, so make you follow our WeChat and have your questions ready.

Another important piece of news is that NiftyPlanet is starting its first bounty campaign. During the next 8 weeks, bounty hunters will have a chance to earn $9,000 worth of NFPL tokens.

There will be 160 winners in total. At the end of the bounty campaign, we will count the number of stakes earned in all bounty programs and reward the best achievers. To increase your chances of winning, participate in several bounty programs. More details and rules will be published separately.

https://niftyplanet.co/collection/nifty-planet

Here are some important links of Nifty Planet

WEBSITE: https://niftyplanet.co/

MEDIUM: https://niftyplanet.medium.com/

TELEGRAM : https://t.me/NiftyPlanet

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/PlanetNifty

YOU TUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7iTV9RFgEOQsxhOaKfITDw

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nifty.planet/

Reddit: https://discord.com/channels/829112237247561738/829112237247561740

Author: ket tumbar

Bitcointalk Profile: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2202323

Telegram username: @Kettumbar123

ETH Address: 0x5A165374202E9648061144684846Afb8469645bf

[cryptonewsmanuelakanji]

NiftyPlanet (NFPL)

NiftyPlanet (NFPL) - Decentralized international NFT marketplace.

What is the main aim for the NiftyPlanet project?

NiftyPlanet is an NFT marketplace and minting platform that utilizes the NFPL token to empower users who actively interact with the platform.

Users on the NiftyPlanet platform can buy and sell NFT’s (non-fungible tokens) created for rare and unique digital items such as music, artwork, trading cards, experience-sharing, hybrid digital/physical, and in the near future, even physical items.

NiftyPlanet’s plans extend far beyond being just another marketplace for digital collectibles and art. We intend to bridge the digital and physical world via blockchain technology to make it possible for collectibles and creations borne from both worlds to be shared with the world in the same exciting place.

We also want to give an international voice to creators that have never ventured past their own “neighborhoods” by connecting creators with an exploding International Crypto community.

Finally, we plan to provide a place where creators can monetize their creativity and even make a living from it, something especially needed in the wake of the globalist-created plannedemic, inhuman lockdowns and global financial destruction of 2020–2021. NiftyPlanet also wants to give back to all of its users and will offer rewards for active participation on the platform (creating and selling, collecting, voting and moderating, etc.). NiftyPlanet plans to provide the opportunity for farming to earn, as well.

The NiftyPlanet protocol is a solution to the limitations faced by the intellectual property market, including licensing and paperwork challenges, piracy issues and right-protection, limited or subdued revenue, and more. The advent of NFT’s represents an awesome alternative to everyone.

NIftyPlanet Video Guides - NFTとは？

https://youtu.be/8qApW2D_sn4

Why is the NiftyPlanet project team remaining anonymous?

We believe that new era of privacy and also private money is here. The world is changing very fast and people want to have a new approach in their relationship with the world at large, including the economy and government. It is clear, especially after the tyranny that has arisen from the insane and and irrational response to the “pandemic” that the NWO and its buddies in the new Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex, are currently trying to take over the world, and or kill us all. We feel that it is essential that we all begin guarding and protecting our privacy and rights before everything we own and love is gone or usurped by the “powers that shouldn’t be” either via their surveillance, assisted by other NWO buddies such as the tech giants we all know and love. Our own efforts start with this project. Those megalomaniacs aren’t welcome to participate in our community nor do we want anything to do with them thus we choose to remain anonymous.

We also feel there is too much pressure on companies and individuals to pay exorbitantly high taxes. And besides the obvious fact that taxes are too high, governments have shown perpetually that they are completely irresponsible in how they use taxes they collect from hard working citizens the world round; wasting and misusing funds for personal ends such as visiting prostitute establishments, rebuilding the same road many multiple times just so they can receive the same budget as the previous year, and last but not least to start wars, spending billions worldwide to create weapons of destruction to kill people in foreign countries that the taxpayers have no desire to have conflict with at all in the first place. But saying all this does not mean that we are against the taxes completely. In fact, we will gladly support the payment of taxes when they will be used for the people that bust their asses to pay them, and not to benefit the psychopaths who are currently in control of the spending of the taxes they collect from all of us. Taxes should migrated to a cryptocurrency basis and the method of payment should be changed from advanced payment — where you pay VAT, consumption taxes or taxes from your income from trading, to the “payment for the results”. In business area it’s called “Pay for Performance Principle”. In this payment for results scenario, for example, if you were happy with how the roads look around us that were built by your government, you would go to the DeFi Tax platform and pay directly to the company who built those roads. The same with your local Police force or any other kind of service that are currently funded by the thousands of types of taxes collected around the world. This way of paying taxes after you see the results or actual use of those taxes will motivate governments to transform and become more effective, efficient and responsible, and it will improve the world and environment around us. In our opinion, VAT that we are all paying in shops is absolutely enough for the government to survive. The rest of the Taxes we will pay in the future, once governments recognize and respect that The Era of Private money is here and we will no longer forgive their irresponsible use of our hard-earned income.

Cryptocurrency gives us our power to control our governments once more, the way they should be. Until the governments can prove they can be responsible and will not misuse or simply steal taxed money from the people we have no reason to hand any over to them. Another important reason for remaining anonymous, is routine paperwork and other extra costs. Once we register any kind of a earth-based company we need to hire a lawyer open a physical office, get and send correspondence in perpetuity. And all these things decrease our efficiency and effectiveness. In our initial stage we can not allow ourselves to waste such important resources as a time. We would better off investing this time to improve your user experience on our platform and make your life easier and more interesting, and to provide more creative and financial opportunities for our users.

The structure of NFPL token distribution

The NiftyPlanet platform is a semi self-funded platform. Half of the funds for the development and platform launch were provided by a few pre-seed investors.

Total token supply is 1 billion tokens.

There are 10 pre-seed investors of this project. In total they control 83M tokens. Additionally, they own 29% interest in the project.

2 main Founders control 8% of all token supply (80M tokens).

Tokens have been distributed to 2 founders, 2 team members and 10 pre-seed investors.

Before we hold our IDO which is planned for June 2021, founders’ and pre-seed investors’ tokens will not move at all. The main reason we are doing this is because we believe that people who participate in IDO’s should have a guarantee that the team and investors will not sell all of their tokens all at once before the IDO starts.

In the graphic you can see the entity structure of token allocation with exact ETH addresses. Until the end of the actual IDO, there will be no NFPL transactions originating from project or investor wallets.

Founder 1 (4.00%)

0x313a82316f2591ecdff509699f80ff434b4f23a1

Founder 2 (4.00%)

0xb85d39145755ca7cbd7a0703327dd0ad7fc7137c

Pre-seed investor 1 (2.00%)

0x3fb9bea7a24b70bc7588c5c25815f5d6a5936cdd

Pre-seed investor 2 (1.15%)

0x05fc4d24c1ccd25b69b8d072f4234d37d2f26bb3

Pre-seed investor 3 (0.60%)

0x9664a89a0627106d02a0143f3e6b8cc8403070cd

Pre-seed investor 4 (0.55%)

0x6ada63ea649c558718da343f09be19421724f6a6

Pre-seed investor 5 (0.40%)

0xcbc297537f30d383460862e86c3c7c332b2f1eda

Pre-seed investor 6 (0.40%)

0xbf9c915abf2003da52a6e67ae6bcd2daba6779a1

Pre-seed investor 7 (0.40%)

0x9cf8e867328eb1d35c6637c5c75fd7851d879ef5

Pre-seed investor 8 (0.40%)

These tokens will be distributed after IDO

Pre-seed investor 9 (0.40%)

0xe81C6E1B75dD8fA589Ce0389dEc305e899FA943D

Pre-seed investor 10 (2.00%)

0x58E2966cA92Eb9FebE5f6c05DA653E464aF2531A

Core team member 11 (1%)

0x6802bf043ECA770F7c1F4A03C9D68F9D181591fe

Core team member 12 (1%)

0xeAe5700167e71E88f2D20CDf5E7B743C8EB79533

Marketing (10.00%)

0xC5F62cCDB455800c1daa1e8f6b0678A77F71B756

Main address with rest of the NFPL tokens (81.70%)

0xee0ab4691476244d1633d8d1197d0a66def7e5a9

Buy our NFTs from the first Original NiftyPlanet drop!

https://twitter.com/i/status/1406979232463470599

#niftyplanet #digitalcollections #NFTs #ETH #Drop

Platform Roadmap

Development of "NFT Creation Engine" and marketplace.

Launching of marketplace Beta Testing, presenting exclusive Drops.

Collaboration with show-biz talents, artists, and creators in Japan and China for Drops.

Implementation of invitation system/Start reward system for users.

Opening of NFT creation to all content creators.

Official launch and mass marketing in Japan and China.

IDO (Initial Dex Offering) in Japan, China, and Internationally.

Voting system integration and delegation of Management to the community.

#niftyplanet #nifties #NFT #NFTCommunity #digitalart #NFTmarketplace

NiftyPlanet — Where Are We Heading?

NiftyPlanet is the world’s marketplace for Nifties. Nifties are authentic and verifiably unique digital items you can truly own. Our team has been working hard to create something worthy of the attention of our community. After quite a lot of testing of the platform, we are happy, excited, and proud to announce that we are officially launching tomorrow, June, 19th! Our first drop is now scheduled, so more info will be published on our social media shortly.

Let’s talk about some things that you can expect in the next few days. On June 22, we are conducting our first Chinese AMA, so make you follow our WeChat and have your questions ready.

Another important piece of news is that NiftyPlanet is starting its first bounty campaign. During the next 8 weeks, bounty hunters will have a chance to earn $9,000 worth of NFPL tokens.

There will be 160 winners in total. At the end of the bounty campaign, we will count the number of stakes earned in all bounty programs and reward the best achievers. To increase your chances of winning, participate in several bounty programs. More details and rules will be published separately.

Our first ever AMA session is live. Only for Chinese people!

#AMA #Niftyplanet #digitalart

For more information about niftyplanet

WEBSITE: https://niftyplanet.co/

MEDIUM: https://niftyplanet.medium.com/

TELEGRAM : https://t.me/NiftyPlanet

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/PlanetNifty

YOU TUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7iTV9RFgEOQsxhOaKfITDw

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nifty.planet/

Reddit: https://discord.com/channels/829112237247561738/829112237247561740

Author:

Bitcointalk Username: Manuel Akanji

Bitcointalk Profile: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2954998

Telegram Username: @Manuelakanji777

ETH Address: 0x176a48a2Eb8FF8dfa46e58741E4A7b642C90F512

[jadonsancho09]

NiftyPlanet Project

NiftyPlanet - Decentralized international NFT marketplace.

#NFT #NFTCommunity #niftyplanet #niftyplanetnews #NFTmarketplace #digitalart

What is the main aim for the NiftyPlanet project?

NiftyPlanet is an NFT marketplace and minting platform that utilizes the NFPL token to empower users who actively interact with the platform.

Users on the NiftyPlanet platform can buy and sell NFT’s (non-fungible tokens) created for rare and unique digital items such as music, artwork, trading cards, experience-sharing, hybrid digital/physical, and in the near future, even physical items.

NiftyPlanet’s plans extend far beyond being just another marketplace for digital collectibles and art. We intend to bridge the digital and physical world via blockchain technology to make it possible for collectibles and creations borne from both worlds to be shared with the world in the same exciting place.

We also want to give an international voice to creators that have never ventured past their own “neighborhoods” by connecting creators with an exploding International Crypto community.

Finally, we plan to provide a place where creators can monetize their creativity and even make a living from it, something especially needed in the wake of the globalist-created plannedemic, inhuman lockdowns and global financial destruction of 2020–2021. NiftyPlanet also wants to give back to all of its users and will offer rewards for active participation on the platform (creating and selling, collecting, voting and moderating, etc.). NiftyPlanet plans to provide the opportunity for farming to earn, as well.

The NiftyPlanet protocol is a solution to the limitations faced by the intellectual property market, including licensing and paperwork challenges, piracy issues and right-protection, limited or subdued revenue, and more. The advent of NFT’s represents an awesome alternative to everyone.

NIftyPlanet Video Guides - NFTとは？

https://youtu.be/8qApW2D_sn4

Why is the NiftyPlanet project team remaining anonymous?

We believe that new era of privacy and also private money is here. The world is changing very fast and people want to have a new approach in their relationship with the world at large, including the economy and government. It is clear, especially after the tyranny that has arisen from the insane and and irrational response to the “pandemic” that the NWO and its buddies in the new Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex, are currently trying to take over the world, and or kill us all. We feel that it is essential that we all begin guarding and protecting our privacy and rights before everything we own and love is gone or usurped by the “powers that shouldn’t be” either via their surveillance, assisted by other NWO buddies such as the tech giants we all know and love. Our own efforts start with this project. Those megalomaniacs aren’t welcome to participate in our community nor do we want anything to do with them thus we choose to remain anonymous.

We also feel there is too much pressure on companies and individuals to pay exorbitantly high taxes. And besides the obvious fact that taxes are too high, governments have shown perpetually that they are completely irresponsible in how they use taxes they collect from hard working citizens the world round; wasting and misusing funds for personal ends such as visiting prostitute establishments, rebuilding the same road many multiple times just so they can receive the same budget as the previous year, and last but not least to start wars, spending billions worldwide to create weapons of destruction to kill people in foreign countries that the taxpayers have no desire to have conflict with at all in the first place. But saying all this does not mean that we are against the taxes completely. In fact, we will gladly support the payment of taxes when they will be used for the people that bust their asses to pay them, and not to benefit the psychopaths who are currently in control of the spending of the taxes they collect from all of us. Taxes should migrated to a cryptocurrency basis and the method of payment should be changed from advanced payment — where you pay VAT, consumption taxes or taxes from your income from trading, to the “payment for the results”. In business area it’s called “Pay for Performance Principle”. In this payment for results scenario, for example, if you were happy with how the roads look around us that were built by your government, you would go to the DeFi Tax platform and pay directly to the company who built those roads. The same with your local Police force or any other kind of service that are currently funded by the thousands of types of taxes collected around the world. This way of paying taxes after you see the results or actual use of those taxes will motivate governments to transform and become more effective, efficient and responsible, and it will improve the world and environment around us. In our opinion, VAT that we are all paying in shops is absolutely enough for the government to survive. The rest of the Taxes we will pay in the future, once governments recognize and respect that The Era of Private money is here and we will no longer forgive their irresponsible use of our hard-earned income.

Cryptocurrency gives us our power to control our governments once more, the way they should be. Until the governments can prove they can be responsible and will not misuse or simply steal taxed money from the people we have no reason to hand any over to them. Another important reason for remaining anonymous, is routine paperwork and other extra costs. Once we register any kind of a earth-based company we need to hire a lawyer open a physical office, get and send correspondence in perpetuity. And all these things decrease our efficiency and effectiveness. In our initial stage we can not allow ourselves to waste such important resources as a time. We would better off investing this time to improve your user experience on our platform and make your life easier and more interesting, and to provide more creative and financial opportunities for our users.

The structure of NFPL token distribution

The NiftyPlanet platform is a semi self-funded platform. Half of the funds for the development and platform launch were provided by a few pre-seed investors.

Total token supply is 1 billion tokens.

There are 10 pre-seed investors of this project. In total they control 83M tokens. Additionally, they own 29% interest in the project.

2 main Founders control 8% of all token supply (80M tokens).

Tokens have been distributed to 2 founders, 2 team members and 10 pre-seed investors.

Before we hold our IDO which is planned for June 2021, founders’ and pre-seed investors’ tokens will not move at all. The main reason we are doing this is because we believe that people who participate in IDO’s should have a guarantee that the team and investors will not sell all of their tokens all at once before the IDO starts.

In the graphic you can see the entity structure of token allocation with exact ETH addresses. Until the end of the actual IDO, there will be no NFPL transactions originating from project or investor wallets.

Founder 1 (4.00%)

0x313a82316f2591ecdff509699f80ff434b4f23a1

Founder 2 (4.00%)

0xb85d39145755ca7cbd7a0703327dd0ad7fc7137c

Pre-seed investor 1 (2.00%)

0x3fb9bea7a24b70bc7588c5c25815f5d6a5936cdd

Pre-seed investor 2 (1.15%)

0x05fc4d24c1ccd25b69b8d072f4234d37d2f26bb3

Pre-seed investor 3 (0.60%)

0x9664a89a0627106d02a0143f3e6b8cc8403070cd

Pre-seed investor 4 (0.55%)

0x6ada63ea649c558718da343f09be19421724f6a6

Pre-seed investor 5 (0.40%)

0xcbc297537f30d383460862e86c3c7c332b2f1eda

Pre-seed investor 6 (0.40%)

0xbf9c915abf2003da52a6e67ae6bcd2daba6779a1

Pre-seed investor 7 (0.40%)

0x9cf8e867328eb1d35c6637c5c75fd7851d879ef5

Pre-seed investor 8 (0.40%)

These tokens will be distributed after IDO

Pre-seed investor 9 (0.40%)

0xe81C6E1B75dD8fA589Ce0389dEc305e899FA943D

Pre-seed investor 10 (2.00%)

0x58E2966cA92Eb9FebE5f6c05DA653E464aF2531A

Core team member 11 (1%)

0x6802bf043ECA770F7c1F4A03C9D68F9D181591fe

Core team member 12 (1%)

0xeAe5700167e71E88f2D20CDf5E7B743C8EB79533

Marketing (10.00%)

0xC5F62cCDB455800c1daa1e8f6b0678A77F71B756

Main address with rest of the NFPL tokens (81.70%)

0xee0ab4691476244d1633d8d1197d0a66def7e5a9

Platform Roadmap

Development of "NFT Creation Engine" and marketplace.

Launching of marketplace Beta Testing, presenting exclusive Drops.

Collaboration with show-biz talents, artists, and creators in Japan and China for Drops.

Implementation of invitation system/Start reward system for users.

Opening of NFT creation to all content creators.

Official launch and mass marketing in Japan and China.

IDO (Initial Dex Offering) in Japan, China, and Internationally.

Voting system integration and delegation of Management to the community.

#niftyplanet #nifties #NFT #NFTCommunity #digitalart #NFTmarketplace

NiftyPlanet — Where Are We Heading?

NiftyPlanet is the world’s marketplace for Nifties. Nifties are authentic and verifiably unique digital items you can truly own. Our team has been working hard to create something worthy of the attention of our community. After quite a lot of testing of the platform, we are happy, excited, and proud to announce that we are officially launching tomorrow, June, 19th! Our first drop is now scheduled, so more info will be published on our social media shortly.

Let’s talk about some things that you can expect in the next few days. On June 22, we are conducting our first Chinese AMA, so make you follow our WeChat and have your questions ready.

Another important piece of news is that NiftyPlanet is starting its first bounty campaign. During the next 8 weeks, bounty hunters will have a chance to earn $9,000 worth of NFPL tokens.

There will be 160 winners in total. At the end of the bounty campaign, we will count the number of stakes earned in all bounty programs and reward the best achievers. To increase your chances of winning, participate in several bounty programs. More details and rules will be published separately.

for more information about niftyplanet

WEBSITE: https://niftyplanet.co/

MEDIUM: https://niftyplanet.medium.com/

TELEGRAM : https://t.me/NiftyPlanet

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/PlanetNifty

YOU TUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7iTV9RFgEOQsxhOaKfITDw

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nifty.planet/

Reddit: https://discord.com/channels/829112237247561738/829112237247561740

Author:

Bitcointalk username: Jadon Sancho

Bitcointalk Profile: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2954208

Telegram: @Jadonsancho09

ETH Address: 0x5541Bd8145965dFBE8CE3429898000605F689904

[closecry]

Sketches (Artist!Reader x Pagan Min)

Summary: You are quite the artist, unknown to Pagan. You find it calming to draw things in your daily life. Living in Kyrat with Pagan has caused a lot of your sketches to have him in it. One day he comes across you drawing something and asks to see how the progress is coming along. After you hand him the notebook, he commits a cardinal sin by starting to flipping through the pages.

Word Count: 1,241. No warnings, this is pure fluff to start the new year right. The reader is left gender neutral.

(Rather read on Ao3?)

You were a little bit of an artist. Not that you would ever admit it or call yourself that out loud.

Everywhere you went, you always brought a sketchbook with you in order to document your journey. The pieces you draw reflect what's going on in your life.

...It's only natural for you to start to doodle Pagan. Being around him as much as you were, it was only logical. Or at least, that’s what you told yourself as you start drawing him more and more as the days pass. He starts showing up in your sketchbooks more often as you get to know him.

They're all innocent, it's nothing like you doodling him with his shirt off or anything, it's more like him when he's lively and talking on the phone with someone or reaching for something on the top of the cupboard and he has to get on his tippy toes…. It's just moments that are slices of life, of your life now. The mundane… Or, they would be mundane if they weren’t Pagan.

When he discovers it one day you want to die.

You're working on a piece outside, a yak has somehow wandered in a field nearby, past where the guards care. You're drawing it, how it looks surrounded by all the urbanization this area has had done to it. It's eerily serene. (You have a feeling Pagan had noticed you interested in the creature and that’s the reason it hasn’t been removed yet.)

"What are you sketching, darling?" His voice startles you, and you jump when you hear it, almost losing hold of your pencil.

You look up at him as he moves to sit beside you on an empty space of the blanket you had stretched out upon the grass.

Instead of verbally offering an answer you more so hand it to him, allowing him to hold the sketchbook and look for himself. Afterall, this piece wasn’t a bad one. It was looking quite nice, actually. He looks up after a moment, and sees the yak in a similar position. He then looks back down and admires the accuracy appreciatively. "You're a very good artist." He says, almost surprised, continuing to look at the piece in question. "Why hadn't you shared that with me before?" His eyes come up to yours and they seem almost hurt.

You shrug. "I don't draw that much, just when I see something interesting." You say, and before you know it Pagan does the biggest no-no possible. He starts flipping through the pages.

Before you can stop him, he lands on one of the photos of him. It's the one piece you had done of him while he was relaxing one day, leaned against the couch and humming along to the music playing in the background sleepily... He had looked cute. It's more of a sketch, but it is fairly lifelike and you're sure he can tell exactly who it is.

A smile grows on his face and you hide your face in your hands. "So, me in my pajamas is interesting now?" He says, extremely self confident and not with a hint of malice.

Your mouth goes dry. "Listen…" You start, but you have no ground. You don't know where to go with that. You put your head in your hands, giving up an attempt at a rebuttal. If there were any moment for God to strike you down, it would be now. Put you out of your misery. Your intensely embarrassed misery.

"It's alright, love." He lets out a chuckle, and slides his hand slides over your back soothingly. "It doesn't bother me any, you shouldn't be embarrassed." He lets out a small humming noise. “With all of the portraits around, you can tell I’m clearly photogenic.” You hear him pause, mumble something like ‘Or, well, Eric is photogenic, but you understand what I mean.’, but you’re not positive on the wording exactly because it’s said so quietly and quickly that it’s hard to catch.

Regardless of his evident interest in your artwork, you still not only embarrassed, you're absolutely mortified. In hindsight, maybe you should’ve planned for Pagan discovering your artwork. His interest in you seemed to be endless, it was inevitable for him to eventually find out.

You hear the noise of him turning the pages and that breaks you out of your train of thoughts. Oh God, you tried to remember what else you had drawn in that one. Luckily, nothing too… weird or odd. You didn’t think. Just daily sketches of your surroundings. You know that quite a few of them are Pagan, though. That alone has your heart beating faster as he continues to search through your notebook.

"...You're very good, I must admit." Pagan says, once more, and it's with nothing short of absolute adoration. You're not sure he could have another tone towards you, and if he could, he hadn’t shown it.

Your cheeks are red hot when you look back up at him, and the smile on his face hasn't disappeared. He's on the page you had drawn of the outside of one of the windows, one that overlooked the mountain. Pagan had been admiring it one day in one of his suits when you had decided to sketch him doing such.

One of Pagan's fingers traces the edge slightly, but lightly enough as to where it doesn't smudge the pencil. “We should blow some of these up and hang them in the palace.” He says, and his eyes darted up to you at you now that you’ve raised your face from your hands. His smile grows wider upon seeing your face, and you can see his eyes tracking the bright shade of red your cheeks and neck have turned. "You look absolutely breathtaking in red, my darling." Pagan says without a hint of sarcasm.

Normally saying something so cheesy and romantic would be saved for the movies, but he seemed to just spout off romantic nonsense all the time… it was kind of nice. Before meeting him, you’re positive you would’ve just rolled your eyes if a man tried something like that with you. If it were anyone else saying it, it would come out sounding fake. Forced. Someone wouldn’t say something like that to you unless they want something from you and were trying to butter you up with compliments. With Pagan, it comes out as naturally as breathing. He really did live to see you blush.

Your eyes move down, not being able to handle the intense eye contact for a long period of time, especially not when he was looking at you like you were the most important thing in the world. "Thanks." You say simply, knowing that his compliment does nothing but redden your cheeks further.

It looks like it pleases him, if his continued smile is anything to go by, but he doesn’t comment on it. Instead, he quirks his head back to the palace. “Let’s go see what Gary can do about blowing some of these up.” He says, holding the sketchbook in one of his hands. He sounded very sure of himself already, like he wouldn't take no for an answer. He made a move to stand up, and offered you a hand so you could do the same.

It was hard to argue with Pagan, especially when he was determined to do something. “Alright.” You say, and you take his hand.

[solo-net]

QUESTIONS FOR OC CREATORS

( Saw these floating around on Tumblr and decided give it a shot. Art of V was done by the wonderful @commandermorgan because she’s a talented artist who needs all the acknowledgment for her gorgeous works. )

A) Why are you excited about this character?

Because Vera is a Black Bisexual woman ( like me! ) who is a Nomad in the Cyberpunk 2077 universe. Hardened by her life in the Badlands and ready to prove something to the people of Night City, Vera isn't a kind person and she’s not here to be your caretaker or hold your hand. She’s got her own agenda and while she’s always looking out for number one ( herself ), it’s not because she’s irredeemably self-serving, but because she’s a nomad who has been taught to survive from the moment she learned how to walk. 

Vera has the appearance of a sweet-faced, angelic beauty with an otherworldly innocence about her...except she’s the total opposite of her appearance and is someone who is incredibly dangerous and a product of the harsh environment she grew up in. I wanted to write a character who people would underestimate at first glance only to regret it later on. I also wanted to write a Black female character because as a Black woman, I’m more comfortable writing characters of my race, gender, and sexuality. Also, I see very few Black V’s in the Cyberpunk fandom and just wanted to get a headstart on that. 

B) What inspired you to create them?

It was complex female characters like Selina Kyle, Yennefer, and Ada Wong that inspired me to create Vera. Vera is a young woman in her early twenties who has lived a very hard life and desires to become something more in Night City. 

She’s fiercely independent and pragmatic to a fault, but she has managed to keep her integrity as a nomad intact and has her own “code” that she lives by. Vera grew up in the Badlands and survived by herself when her nomad family fell apart, going by less than favorable means, such as scavenging for supplies or even killing if necessary to protect her interests. At times she appears aloof and self-serving, hardened because of her deeply troubled life, but that doesn’t mean she won’t work alongside someone to get the job done. 

Vera is extremely guarded but has shown a degree of loyalty and compassion that she seldom reveals because of her chosen stoic exterior. Despite her “difficult” personality, she does have some semblance of a conscience and genuinely cares for anyone she considers “family.” 

C) Did you have trouble figuring out where they fit in their own story?

To be honest...yes. Cyberpunk 2077 was slowly coming out of the woodworks and I was being spoon-fed small doses of information. So small that I didn’t know where to begin with Vera’s story. I plotted what I could with the teeny bits of information I was given. I mean, the game’s not even out yet and after watching all the NCW episodes, I’ve come to the conclusion that once the game comes out, I’m going to be making some big changes to her story. 

D) Have they always had the same physical appearance, or have you had to edit how they look?

You know what? There’s some old artwork of Vera where she had green hair and her name was Vanya the artwork was done by @taiga-saejima​ who is just wonderful and incredible ( please show the mun some support ). 

“Vanya” was originally a brash, impulsive young woman with a prosthetic arm that could drill holes through a wall and had dreams of grandeur, but over time...she slowly began to evolve. She changed from this loud-mouthed moron to a silent survivalist suffering from an extreme amount of PTSD and has unresolved grief from a childhood trauma that haunts her. 

Like Max from Fury Road, she wandered from place to place in hopes of outrunning the “ghosts” that shadow her steps. Vera tells herself that she only came to Night City to make it big and provide opportunities for other nomads looking to earn a living for their families and that’s partially true, but deep down, she needed a distraction. Also, her hair is no longer green but a dark purple and her prosthetic forearm cannot drill holes into walls.

E) Are they someone you would get along with? Would they get along with you?

I think we’d get along okay, but we wouldn’t be super close. 

I’m a huge wuss, and I would never be able to keep up with her because of my anxiety, my fear of loud noises, my crippling fear of getting physically hurt, and my unholy addiction to tea. Yes, Vera and I share some similarities, but I’ve been coddled my whole life, and she’s been on the road surviving. Vera and I would be better off as friendly neighbors eating lunch together and watching trashy reality shows. 

F) What do you feel when you think of your OC (pride, excitement, frustration, etc)?

I feel nothing but love and pride for my baby girl. She’s been with me since 2019 and I’m surprised at how much she’s evolved as a character. Yes, I put her through a lot of shit but I never go overboard because heaping a bunch of pain on an oc can get boring and downright depressing. Vera’s story is about endurance, healing, determination, family, and freedom. 

G) What trait of theirs bothers you the most?

Although intelligent, Vera is highly paranoid which, combined with her temper can also affect the headway of her plans or position. She doesn’t trust easily and has a tiny circle of friends that she knows will never betray her. I can’t exactly blame her for being this way but this paranoia can be a hindrance because she’s slow to warm up to people and believes that someone is always out to get her. 

H) What trait do you admire most?

Her ability to manage money.

Vera excels at money management, and that is due to her analytical, obsessive nature. She’ll dot her i's and cross her t's — that means no stone goes unturned, and when it comes to financing, it's the same.

She’ll make notes, take notes, and figure things out in a realistic way. Reality is key with Vera, and that means she doesn’t fantasize about her bank account; she knows exactly what's going on and how to make her money grow.

Does she love spending money? Yes! She loves shopping, but she loves managing her money more...and discounts.

I also love how she’s not afraid to get her hands dirty.

Nothing is more important to Vera than achieving her own goals. She’s not out to hurt anyone, not really, but she will do whatever it takes to succeed and make it big in Night City. If someone gets in her way, that’s too bad — Vera won’t hesitate to tip the scales in her favor and remove the obstacle. The concept of “fair” loses all meaning to her if she feels like her ambitions are being threatened.

J) Did you have to manipulate or exclude canon factors to allow them to create their character?

Yes? No? I already know that a Nomad!V had to leave their family but there’s no information as to what happened to them...so I made up my own headcanon about what happened to Vera’s family. Her parents were murdered by Wraiths and the rest of her nomad family scattered during a particularly gruesome raid led by Raffen Shiv. 

I haven’t played the game yet...soooo I’m not sure which part of her story is canon. 

I) Do you prefer to keep them in their canon universe?

Yes and no.

I have so many aus for her it’s ridiculous. I have a Dead By Daylight au where she’s a goth girl just trying to survive and I have a Fallout 4 au where she traveled from the Mojave to the Commonwealth after her family was killed by the Legion.

[seyaryminamoto]

A decade in review

So... I figured I’d join the corny crowd of people who are talking about their growth and achievements this decade. Looking back can actually help a lot when you lose sight of where you’re standing or where you’re going, soooo...

I started this decade halfway through writing an original story that I didn’t take all that seriously at the time. I was in ninth grade, so sure, I was young... and yet, as some people might know, I was clawing my way out of the worst depression I’ve ever faced. If you guys thought you’d seen my low points... yeah, no, I’ve never again hit a low point as badly as I did back then. Yet even though difficult things happened through the rest of the decade, I learned enough lessons from that early, terrible and distressing time (which happened at the end of the previous decade, to be precise, which is why it’s honestly not worth going into right now) that I managed to stay afloat, even if not easily, upon each new opportunity where depressions knocked on my door up to date.

Now, beyond my mental health, I was still in music school at the start of 2010, and I was certainly no longer as enthusiastic about it as I had been when I first enrolled. I didn’t realize at the time that my calling was something else entirely... and the more I wrote that story I mentioned above, the more I leaned away from one branch of art and towards another.

I think I got my first graphic tablet either in 2009 or 2010, at one of my birthdays. My sister dropped the pen on the first day, the tip broke and I flew into the worst of rages :’D she was so apologetic about it, I don’t think I’d ever seen her quite so remorseful, which was why I toned down eventually and cut her slack, did my best not to bring it up again... anyways, I learned to draw with that thing despite the malfunctioning pen, and the first artworks I did weren’t exactly brilliant... here’s one of them, one of the few I actually finished :’D

... Safe to say, I’ve learned a lot since those days, right? :’D

(also, if anyone wonders, that artwork features the main characters of that original story I mentioned, the original file is dated for April 2010, so indeed, a file from early on in the decade :’D)

Slowly, but surely, my life started to revolve more and more around writing and reading/watching stories of all sorts. I’d spend hours and hours every day watching anime (yep, my weaboo phase in full swing!), I’d devour most books that fell into my hands, and I even ended up volunteering at a library (does it really count as volunteering if the government forces you to volunteer or else you can’t graduate from high school...? Hmmmmmm...). I actually chose that library because most other options were basically to play babysitter for either kids or senior citizens, and I sure didn’t think I was equipped to deal with either thing. A library, though, meant I’d work with books most of all, and I was pretty sure I’d be more useful at that job.

Cue the irony that, because I was apparently so helpful, they decided to give me more important duties, such as DESK DUTY, because the other volunteers weren’t as trustworthy as me, and bye-bye to working directly with books. Haha. Sad.

But that temporary, sort-of job at that library definitely changed my outlook on my future, even if it felt like such a fortuitous thing, something I was forced to do rather than choosing to do it of my own volition.

For all my life I’d felt a ton of pressure because my family is always more science-oriented than any other I’ve ever met. So I had to excel at school because that was expected of me (all my siblings had, so I couldn’t lag behind them, I’d been disgustingly competitive with my siblings for too long to reason with it yet), and I actually was decent at science subjects. I blindly thought that science was the only possible path for me in life. I was seriously planning on going into engineering because I more or less enjoyed chemistry... but every time I thought about what it meant to finish a major in engineering of any sort, I always ended up asking myself one question: would I have time to write in that sort of career?

The mere thought of office work, lab work, which were guaranteeed to be the best thing I could aspire to once I finished college for engineering, sounded like a morbid funeral march to me. I honestly found myself thinking that’d be a waste of my life. And that’s not to say anyone who actually spends their life that way is wasting theirs, but I KNEW it wasn’t my calling.

One day, while at that library, I realized what my actual calling was: I wanted that life. I wanted to work with books, whether making them or writing them or selling them or just about anything to do with the business. A mix of my crazy storytelling passion with that particular job experience brought me to the conclusion that I needed to forsake my family’s big ole’ scientific legacy and to make my own choices. My three siblings could easily enough carry forward that “legacy”, I could do my thing instead.

I think that decision, which took more courage than I thought I had, was probably one of the best I’ve made in my entire life. Telling my mother I’d go into literature was NOT easy and I literally had to make the equivalent of a sales pitch for her to agree to it, investigating all I could about the career, researching as much as possible to show her there WERE career possibilities I could pursue if I chose this major, until she finally relented. And that success meant I was off to a whole new world of crazy once I graduated from high school.

Which I did indeed, in 2012. I wouldn’t start college until 2013 because my major’s first semester wouldn’t start until March, so I had a nice long break because the school year, in my country, ends in July. I had been exhausted of studying at the time, so the break was absolutely welcome. 

In the early stages of that time period, I actually finished that big ole’ original story of mine, and I couldn’t have been prouder of myself for it, even if I was sure I’d never show it to anyone. I was embarrassed of it, to a fault, because there was a lot of ridiculousness in it, the plot was all over the place despite following the storytelling beats I’d learned through the many anime I’d watched, and eventually it evolved into something completely different from what it started out as. I sometimes allowed myself to imagine what it would be like to write a big story that I could share with people and hopefully get more than a handful of readers for... Still, I tucked my original story away safely, because even if it was embarrassing, I was proud of what I’d learned with it. So I went on with a new original story, one I was DEAD SURE I’d be a better writer for, and that I would be much more successful with.

My sister visited us during that summer, and she showed me, my other sister and my mom, a certain TV series that she had very much enjoyed despite we had never thought much of it back when it was airing. 

I’d seen a couple of episodes back in the day, but none had quite impressed me. The first episode I saw had made the show appear like some sort of lame “villain of the week” show, and the second one (I probably only caught the second half of this one) had such mixed values and morals that I was completely appalled by it and decided it wasn’t my thing. Then I, uh, also watched the final minutes of the final episode and it seemed so very melodramatic for the SCARRED GUY to ask SOME IMPRISONED GUY where his mother was, only for the show not to address the answer at all and cut to a pair of kids kissing on a balcony.

Sooooo... my very unimpressed self had decided ATLA wasn’t my thing because of The Great Divide, the Southern Raiders and the last three minutes of Sozin’s Comet: Avatar Aang :’) I’m funny that way.

This time around, watching it from scratch, I was slightly more interested in it because the first few episodes DID look like there was a coherent plot that was going somewhere. So even though my mom and other sister didn’t keep watching (at the time), I decided to watch it by myself because well, why not?

... Cut to seven years later and here I am, still neck-deep in this particular, dark corner of that specific show’s fandom. September of 2012 was when the Seyary you all know came into existence (?)

I won’t lie and say my experience in this fandom hasn’t been a damn rollercoaster in its own right. I certainly started off with WAY more enthusiasm than I have now, just look at my Author’s Notes from my first stories or Gladiator’s first chapters and read my hyped notes for yourselves :’D I definitely was caught by the magic of the Avatarverse, the characters, so much about ATLA seemed to exude potential and, after being disappointed by the popular anime of the time (*cough* SAO *cough*), ATLA (and later LOK Book 1) were a breath of fresh air for my weaboo brain that was sick and tired of some really annoying tropes anime seemed to be throwing at me left right and center (I’M SO DONE WITH THE IMOUTO FETISH TO THIS DAY, I CATEGORICALLY REFUSE TO WATCH OR READ ANY DAMN STORY WITH ANYTHING FEATURING THAT GROSS AND FUCKED-UP CONCEPT).

So I enjoyed ATLA a lot, and then LOK Book 1 (I virtually watched all of that in one day and had REALLY HIGH HOPES for the next seasons. Heh. I’ll leave that as that). And like everyone who gets hyped about fandoms, I decided I needed to look up more stuff about it! Art, fics, you name it! And while I really enjoyed LOK back then, I had thought Korra’s story would unfold in a cool way in future seasons, since all four of them (I think) had been confirmed by the time I joined the fandom... whereas I was dissatisfied and in dire need of fix-it situations for my favorite ATLA character.

I started off looking for general Azula fics. Then, as usual, I started testing ships for her. There were some ships I never saw the point to, and I shall not name them, there were some ships I saw partial potential to but I wasn’t exactly thrilled about them, so again I shall not name them...

And then one day I was scouring DeviantArt and came across the gem you all know about, which I’ve gushed over for all these seven years as the entire reason I converted to this particular ship.

Secret Kiss by Saniika can be credited, 100%, for planting the seed of Sokkla in my head. I didn’t understand it right away, why lie, but I was definitely intrigued. All other Azula ships I’d found were shipped for obvious reasons, easy enough to pinpoint even if none was all that satisfactory for me... so I was confused by this one, absolutely. Why would someone ship this ship? Why would they ship it so hard as to commission such quality artwork about them? The same commissioner’s name popped up in pretty much every single epic artwork about these two at the time, and I was completely blown away by that. To be so dedicated to a ship, to make all those artworks about a huge story about them that I couldn’t seem to find in FF.net at the time...

Cue the surprise when I actually ended up befriending said commissioner barely a few months later, and she’s hands down one of the best friends I’ve ever had :’)

Still, no need to head into that particular territory right now xD I was curious about the pairing, but I was also wary. I looked for fics, none really seemed to tell canon-compliant stories about how they could have gotten together post-ATLA... at least, not while they were still young. I looked at a few stories but nothing really hit home yet.

Back in these days, I used to go to... gosh, the cringe of just saying so, to FACEBOOK for fandom purposes of all kinds. Yeah, I know Facebook communities aren’t necessarily terrible, but I sure as fuck ended up in all the wrong ones :’) so... heh. I befriended someone who had an Avatar page, and while in conversation with him, the subject of LOK’s Pro-Bending came up. We talked about how much fun it would be for ATLA’s benders to play it. And so, a few weeks later, on a bus ride back home after meeting some high school friends, I allowed the idea to blossom further. And suddenly I was 100% caught up in it, deciding I’d have to feature Azula somehow, and I decided to try my luck at doing that by making her Sokka’s girlfriend :’D his inexplicable girlfriend, at the moment. All of it, just for shits and giggles. Because why not!

So I wrote that story, both because of that momentary bout of inspiration and because my second big original story was falling apart on me due to world-building reasons. Do NOT ever talk to me about Celtic calendars. If you do, I will block you into infinity (?). So yeah! A writer’s block caused by Celtic calendars resulted in my decision to calm down by writing something else for a change.

I had little hopes to finish Origins of Pro-Bending, simply because I didn’t write fics. Whenever I had tried to write any around those years, it had NOT gone well. I had always fallen apart after a couple of chapters, failed to keep up the momentum, fumbled the story as a whole in the end. So I decided to take this easy, and I posted it to FF.net despite not being sure I was ready for that: I hadn’t written a story in English in AGES, and you do NOT want to know what was the story in English I’d written before this. You do not. If you even ask, I WILL BLOCK YOU EVEN MORE THAN I DID WITH THE CALENDAR! *heavy breathing*

Okay, so... back to the topic, I honestly didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t really expect much, because I figured not a lot of people would really care for anything I posted. But then... that view counter started to shift. The numbers kept going up, and the more chapters I posted, the more it did. The reviews also poured in, slowly at this point, and then in a certain chapter there were NO REVIEWS AT ALL. Which I considered a fail. I honestly thought it meant my story was a flop, a failure, and I should just STOP because NO ONE CARED.

... Have I ever been accused of being overly dramatic? If not, it’s only because I hide it relatively well... sometimes :’)

But I said “it’s okay, I’ll finish it. My friend wants to read it after all, and I’ll just write it so he can see it to the end. I’ll finish uploading on FF.net even if no one cares anymore, because maybe someone someday will want to read it, even if no one does now”.

... Overly dramatic Seyary then finished her story and halfway there came up with the idea for a NEW ONE! The PREQUEL! The story of how Sokka and Azula fell in love! All by listening to The Reason. And as much as I had thought I wouldn’t keep writing fics after OoPB, that idea was too powerful to ignore. So when OoPB picked up reviews and views all over again and ended with what I considered was a BANG, I said “THIS SHOW’S NOT GONNA STOP HERE!” and I went and wrote the Reason next, obsessively, literally pushing through the entire, near 100K story, in A MONTH. I honestly wrote every day. I’d NEVER done something like that :’) Granted, I was pretty constant with OoPB, but it was shorter and I wasn’t quite as psyched about it as I was with The Reason.

Honestly, The Reason is where I REALLY fell for Sokkla, for everything that it was, for everything that it could be. I had felt its potential since OoPB, and I had concluded Sokka could make Azula smile like next to no one else could... that is, if anyone else could at all. But the whole spectrum of it, the storytelling potential, the development of both characters... I hadn’t understood it yet. And by the time I did, with The Reason... wow, there really was no turning back.

So I ended up writing that, and then I wrote Break In and How They All Reacted. And in between I made a few AMVs that Viacom NICELY tore down and are no longer available for you guys. Sorry ‘bout that. I did what I could.

The thing that was getting to me most, though, (and, why lie, feeding my ego a bit too much) was looking at FF.net’s data spreadsheets, available only for each user: it wasn’t so much the number of readers, which did overwhelm me on its own right anyhow... it was the places they came from. The fact that I could see, according to this data, that people in South Africa were opening my story, in Romania, in New Zealand, in Singapore... I had allowed myself, very briefly, to imagine I would one day publish books and that they might not be complete fails, but I NEVER expected anything I wrote to be read by people who lived halfway across the world, who had entireliy different cultures from my own, who had no idea who I was but wanted to find something to read and had decided to click on my story, amongst all the many possibilities. That particular function of FF.net is probably my favorite on that site, like I said not because of the numbers but because of the places. Even if your readers aren’t outspoken or they don’t even bother favoriting, following or reviewing... they still count in ways they don’t imagine. They may just look like one more number on FF.net’s spreadsheets, but when that number is connected to a location it feels much more real, I think. As an author, that means that’s one more person, somewhere in the world, who decided to give my story a chance.

On a day of February, 2013, one such person left a review I really enjoyed and that I thanked him for profusely. In his response, he brought up that he had been watching documentaries about the Roman Empire and he had thought about an AU for ATLA where maybe Sokka was captured by the Fire Nation and turned into a gladiator, only to become Azula’s sponsored fighter later on, a fighter she’d want to sponsor merely to stave off boredom. He was bringing it up to me because he didn’t want to write it himself, and he thought maybe I would be interested in trying my hand at it since I seemed so passionate about Sokka and Azula.

At first I only thanked him for the idea, said I wanted to focus on my canon-based stories instead and I was sooooo not interested in AUs at the time...

Ahahahaha.

AHAHAHAHA.

Joke was on me the whole time.

As I’ve mentioned, I went to bed one day, about a month later, and my brain exploded with the possibilities of this story. I told this guy, he was thrilled. I told my closest fandom friends at the time, they were STOKED. One of them told me to get off my ass and start writing that ASAP. Which... I followed through with. Immediately.

It feels a bit strange to think I’ve been writing the same story for nearly 7 years now, with next to no breaks, with such persistence I barely can recognize my early 2010′s self from that. Nope, no worldbuilding nonsense stopped me here: I FIGURED THINGS OUT. I worked through it all. And then I figured it out some more.

Back when I was first scouting the fandom’s fanfiction archives (in FF.net in particular, seeing as I didn’t even have an AO3 account at the time), I remember looking at the biggest, top reviewed stories and wondering how it would feel to be the author of one of those. Most those stories had gotten started either early in the show’s run, or just earlier that same decade... nothing I did was bound to pick up that much steam, I thought, especially when I was writing about what was, by all means, a rarepair that I posted about on Tumblr to like... 8 notes per post. At best.

The first time someone sent me an ask to let me know Gladiator had made it into the first page of top reviewed fics I nearly fell over myself in shock. Admittedly, I’ve gotten used to the feeling by now... but at the time I could barely believe I’d come THAT far without really expecting or meaning to.

I’ve really dealt with a lot of nonsense alongside with the story, ups and downs, highs and lows, nasty situations just as blissful ones... people making art for my story was certainly an incredible highlight. That, as well, is something I did NOT think would ever happen to me. Unlike the top-reviewed page thing, it’s actually impossible to get used to art about your fic xD it’s always amazing.

And I’ve met people from all around the world, made friends far and wide, reached heights I didn’t think I would. I’ve said I’m much more jaded these days, it’s true enough, but that doesn’t mean I’ve lost sight of what this story means in the long run. Gladiator truly is the best story I’ve ever written, in just about every regard. Is it perfect? Have I made nothing but right decisions with it? Nah. But that doesn’t mean I’m not absolutely proud of it for what it is, for all the work I’ve poured into it, for every moment spent building that story into what it is and for how far I’ve come thanks to it.

Everything else in the decade really feels like a blur because of Gladiator, but I’ll say that I’ve as good as finished college by now (while writing Gladiator :’D), I have written all my thesis and am stuck waiting endlessly for my supervisor to goddamn answer me already to say whether I’m ready to go forward with the presentation yet and GRADUATE! But until then I’m stuck waiting on that, even if my college career is pretty much over.

As for my work experience... heh. I had two of those this decade. One... writing clickbait articles. Wow, was that shitty. I hated every second of it. I was pretty sure I was killing people by doing that, because some people are indeed gullible enough to believe the shit I was forced to write. And the pay? It was SHIT. So, as soon as I had a good excuse, I kicked that particular door shut and got out of that mess immediately. And then I got my TV station job too... which started great, and ended up being another shitty disaster. While it had some really wonderful highlights, I made friends with this senior, wonderful video editor who was endearing beyond belief, I learned a ton of things I wouldn’t have learned otherwise (like having the patience to put up with an iMac from 2009 in 2018, to name one thing!), but I also had to endure REALLY dreadful management that led me to even wonder how the damn network was even on-air half the time. The experience in that network taught me a lot about what to expect in work environments, and to NEVER trust the tried, boring and true “this place feels like a family!” claim. Half the time it’s like they don’t realize families are usually complicated, full of unpleasant power-based relationships, secrets, resentment and problems of all sorts. So sure, the workplace might be like a family. Definitely not like a GOOD family, though.

And speaking of families... I’ve developed new appreciation for mine over these years, just as I’ve grown enough to see the cracks everywhere, the problems, even all the way to realizing even an allegedly dream-like family like my own can absolutely be torn apart by miscommunication, pride, stubbornness and refusal of members to acknowledge their wrongdoings. I’ve done my best by my family despite that’s not saying much, I’m indeed a lazy butt who spends way too much time on a computer writing crazy stories rather than working around the house... but I think I’ve never felt more loved and appreciated by my parents as I have in recent times, especially this year. We’ve talked more, opened up more, they’ve even told me the story of how they fell in love (the growth of their relationship all documented through PHOTO ALBUMS!!), they’ve leaned on me in hard times and I think we’re tighter than ever.

On the downside... my grandfather died during this decade too. To this day the loss stings, even though by all means we weren’t the type of super-close grandfather and granddaughter who spend every waking moment together. But the thing is... we were so different, with so little in common, and yet that man loved me so genuinely, so unconditionally I could barely understand it. What had I ever done to be so important to him, beyond being his youngest granddaughter? I always had thought he would feel closer to other of his grandchildren, those who had more things in common with him, and yet when my grandmother died he wanted me to sit with him on the car on our way to the funeral, and just holding my hand seemed to help him gain strength to face what was coming. 

In his final moments he hardly recognized anyone, not even my dad, his son. He kept talking about his childhood home, as though he had returned to his youth and forgotten where and when he was, losing all connection with time and space. But when my dad told him I was there, visiting him... he smiled. And he called me the nickname he always used for me. To the last moment, he knew who I was. I mattered, even if I didn’t know why. When they told me he had passed away I cried, and I cried some more, and to this day I feel like crying for it still, sometimes. I will never, EVER doubt my grandfather truly loved me, and I’ll always carry that with me, no matter where the world goes. I’ve lucked out with this family, but I’d never known unconditional love like the one he always showed me. He was a special man, and losing him certainly was one of the saddest moments in this decade.

Aaalright, so, on a less emotional note... I’ve certainly improved a fuckload with my art, which you all must imagine after the glimpse at one of my earliest artworks up there. That I’ve gone from that to this...

speaks for itself, I hope :’) It’s supposed to be same characters, this one was finished earlier this month. I didn’t post it until now because I frankly didn’t expect anyone would understand what it was or care for it much x’D but it seemed the right opportunity to post it now, especially when talking about art growth.

In any case, I may still have a ton of anxiety to this day, and I definitely am not as confident in many areas as I was when the decade began, I realized I honestly don’t have all the answers and I always have to be ready to learn new things from people, no matter who it is. There’s some regards in which I haven’t progressed enough in, why lie... but I’m hoping the next decade will bring meaningful changes in that department, such as my plans to leave the country, which should come to fruition by next year around March, if all things go according to keikaku (I’ll surely have to return after 6 months, but it’s better than nothing at least). And of course, I do hope I’ll continue to grow as a writer, that all this experience with Gladiator will mean I’ll be 100% ready to write any future original stories I want to (and that I’ll be able to rewrite that specific story and move beyond the slump I fell into because of the DAMN CELTIC CALENDAR!!).

Also, just in case I didn’t get it across in other posts where I mentioned it, I revisited that old original story last year, and despite the messes and mistakes and ridiculousness of it... I love it more now than I ever did before. I’m really proud of it. I know most people cringe at everything they wrote when they were younger... I honestly can’t do anything but look back in pride. My starting point was the best one it could possibly have been.

Now, what’s my resolution for the next decade?

Finishing Gladiator

Yeah, there’s probably going to be other stuff I’ll want to do too. But for now, that shall be the priority. It won’t take just a year, it probably won’t take two... but I will absolutely see this big, chaotic baby to the last moment, and I will savor and suffer and cry and rejoice every step of the way. There is much left I want to achieve, many new objectives to conquer, and I’m going towards them with as open a mind as I can muster. May this 2020, and the years that follow, mark a new starting point that I’ll look back on with pride, just as I can do the same with where I started off in 2010.

Happy New Year to all of you who read this really long post, and I really hope you have a great year and decade, and starting point of your own, in 2020.

[doomedandstoned]

AS I DIE AT MY DESK

Interview by Shawn Gibson

Can you tell me the meaning of the band name As I Die At My Desk? I imagine dying in a cubicle in corporate hell!

The honest answer to this is that it was a joke. I overheard a co worker say it at work and I thought it would be a hilarious band name. It is also a bit ironic as I always told myself that I would do work I truly love and follow my passions as they tell you that stuff in high school and college and it hasn't worked out that way for me yet! I am not deterred. I do get to make music in my spare time. Music gets to be my fun escape. It gets to be my artistic outlet that I don't have to share if I don't want to. All that aside I am a man who loves to laugh and loves to joke. Despite the themes and sounds of the music which are very real and emotionally heavy for me, the band name was a way to take the piss out of the situation. I can laugh at myself for being a weirdo who likes heavy music, where people scream and howl like demons and laugh even harder at how ridiculous I must look doing that in the bedroom for my music. I am pretty serious about most things, but I have to remember to have fun. That is what I think is important. I'm sorry it's not a very metal answer!

Suicide as Cleansing by As I Die at My Desk

You do everything in As I Die At My Desk, all instruments right?

Yes, I do all instruments and my main goal is to try to not suck. I actually record through a pre amp and I use different virtual amp sims like Amplitube for my tones. I used my Sterling by Music Man John Petrucci 7 string guitar, Ibanez BTB7 7 string bass, and an Alesis brand electric drum set for this record. It's a pretty basic setup, but given the size of my recording space, it's the best I can do. I have been writing for the past eight years or so. This is my first attempt at a metal release despite the fact I am a huge metal head! I was pretty happy with what I was able to do by myself.

What are your influences musically?

My influences range from classical music to jazz to anything under the rock umbrella. I am particularly interested in Soviet era composers. Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, and Igor Stravinsky. The first instrument I started playing was a cello at age 10. I graduated college in 2016 and gave a recital featuring Shostakovich and Prokofiev. The desperation and darkness they were able to convey so beautifully have influenced me greatly. I don't have a lot of experience with jazz, but the works of Coltrane, Thelonios Monk and especially Miles Davis have influenced me, as well. I just love especially experimental music and anything that ties to reshape and reform the genres wherein they find themselves pigeonholed. My music doesn't really sound like it to me, but Dream Theater and Iron Maiden are two of my favorites. I didn't actually start to get into doom or sludge until college. Now I love that stuff! Eyehategod is one of my newer favorite bands, as well as Sumac and YOB.

What are some of your favorite books and movies?

I tend to read non-fiction. I am a big history nerd. However I have spent a lot of time in the fiction world, as well. Some of my favorites are Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Twelve Chairs by Ilf and Petrov. I am a big Lynch and Tarantino fan! Blue Velvet and Eraserhead are two of my favorite films. Reservoir Dogs had a really big impact on me, as well. I first saw it when I was 14. It was so gritty and real to me then. That was a very realistic show of violence.

Are you a fan of horror books or movies?

I was a bigger fan of horror when I was in high school. I must have read every Stephen King a dozen times. I don't tend to like a lot of horror books or movies. There are some exceptions, I love monster movies. Give me Jaws or Godzilla any day! I tend to like movies that are creepy or unsettling, but I don't get into paranormal stuff. There are plenty of flesh and blood horrors in our world that are much more terrifying than ghosts.

You have some very heavy music with some very dark themes. What inspired 'Suicide As Cleansing' as your album title?

I am depressed and have anxiety. What more is there to say? To answer your question, though, the title popped into my head one day. I remember I was reading something on social media about mental health and the act of suicide. Someone described suicide as an act of cleansing. That idea stuck with me and I thought about it for quite some time. I decided to use that in an overall positive way. I thought that since I was channeling my negative and destructive feeling into my music, I was attempting to kill myself. Attempting to kill a bad part of myself that I don't want to have to deal with all the time and thus conducting a cleansing of sorts. I wanted that to be the album title because it reflected the whole reason I was making the record. It doesn't help to keep those feelings bottled up cause they fester. I urge anyone who has suicidal or self harming thoughts to seek help. Talk to people; they will listen. You may feel like it doesn't help, but it does. I struggle, but I feel better when I know I'm safe to talk about it. Here's why I give my wife a huge shout-out for being so supportive and understanding!

What was the inspiration for your songs on 'Suicide As Cleansing'?

The inspiration for this whole record was feeling trapped and depressed. Modern day life appears to be doing that for younger generations these days. Waking up one day and realizing careers that you were dead set on are no longer sustainable. Seeing all of the political strife becoming more prominent and ruining friendly and familial relationships. We live in a very depressing world. I don't need to get into all the issues facing us but there are many and enough that are potentially world ending are enough, to make anyone uneasy. In that way I feel that genuine themes of feeling trapped, powerless, isolated and really angry are appropriate.

I would say "No Pride" is one of my favorites. The gallop of the drums, the riff! I feel myself rocking and swaying. Definitely banging my head!

Thanks! It might be my favorite song on the album. It was actually fun to record that one and I did it in far fewer takes than the other ones.

"Trapped In The Bass-Ment" is hypnotizing! It's almost a chance to catch your breath from the other six songs that precede it!

I appreciate the comments! The whole track was written and recorded in one sitting. I am a big fan of drone and ambient music so it seemed fitting. I felt that even I needed a break after "No Pride." It just hit me really hard in conjunction with all the earlier tracks. I worried it might be boring for people, but I silenced that voice. I try to make music for myself, but I really appreciate it when people like my work!

"Annihilate Me" is the equivalent of the musical Dim Mak! Nine-minutes-and-fifty-eight seconds of destruction! Tell me about this song.

"Annihilate Me" was written over a span of about three days. I was in the middle of a very depressive episode and I remember sitting down with my guitar and playing the heaviest, angriest, gnarliest stuff I could get out of it. There was no preconceived plan as to lyrics or vocals. After I recorded the guitars and drums, I screamed anything that came to mind. It was a very cathartic episode and I view it as the perfect ending to an unpleasant journey.

Where did the artwork for 'Suicide As Cleansing' come from? What does it mean to you?

The cover art is a photograph taken from my lovely wife, who gets another shout-out. We were hiking at the Englewood Metropark and we noticed the tree almost all by itself. She took a bunch of photos of it because it was cool and interesting, also creepy. One thing I remember clearly, was the tree's base was covered with these beautiful yellow flowers. In a way I felt it represented the album. The tree itself was dead and bare. It was a little unsettling especially in the photos my wife took. The fact that life had sprung from this dead tree seemed to fit this theme of killing a part of yourself or perhaps a rebirth.

Calculating the Cost of Existence by As I Die at My Desk

Your second album 'Calculating The Cost of Existence' (2019) came out in December. What can you tell us about the new project?

I will say in terms of sound, the new record came out with a different sound. It's a doomy, sludgey mess for sure. There are more introspective parts included. The music is expressing a greater array of feelings than the first.

Another one-man effort?

Yes, I did all the instruments again. As long as I possess the tools to do it, it certainly makes it easier in the creative process not having to deal with other personalities or egos on something so deeply personal to me. Now with that said, I don't mind collaborating or anything in the future.

Is that strenuous at times doing everything in the band?

The worst part about recording is I am not the best musician. It is strenuous when I have to perform everything and I am not that great. (laughs) My skills on guitar and drums are intermediate at best. I have played bass longer so I am a much more confident bass player than I am anything else but that's not saying a lot. It also doesn't help that I don't like the sound of my voice. I fancy myself as a composer, not a performer.

As I Die At My Desk is from Dayton Ohio right?

Yes, the band is based out of Dayton, where I have lived for most of my life so far.

What are some bands from Ohio you love?

To be honest, I don't know a ton of bands from Ohio. I will say I am a fan of Mouth of the Architect and Others by No One out of Dayton, Cloudkicker out of Columbus. Oh I can't forget Skeletonwitch!

Have you been to Ohio Doomed and Stoned Fest?

This might be shocking but I have never heard of Ohio Doomed and Stoned Fest. So no I haven't been but I am certainly interested now!

Will As I Die At My Desk play live or tour down the road?

Well, As I Die At My Desk will probably remain a studio entity. As I said I wouldn't be opposed to any kind of collaboration or possible touring but I don't have any plans for that at the moment. Now for my pretentious answer. As an artist I do not want to feel confined to any one medium as it exists. As I Die At My Desk was born out of specific life circumstances. As long as these circumstances provide emotional weight and depth for me, this project will continue. Once that source dries up(if it ever really does) then I will move on to a new project. As it stands I have a few other projects that I am working on that I can't discuss much yet. Stay tuned!

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[badbookreviewclub]

Complete Review - The Rose Council: The Kaiser Mage

DISCLAIMER: This review will contain spoilers. If you plan to read the book, I will leave a mark for when I go more in-depth on the book, so continue at your own risk. If you want to purchase The Rose Council: The Kaiser Mage, you can get it here.

The Rose Council, as far as I can find, is the first book published by Mark Bullock. On the cover, it states that it is book 1, presumably in a series, though after some extensive searching, I can’t find any sequels despite the book having been published in 2010. The book was published through AuthorHouse, a self-publishing company. I have spoken very briefly with the author about his work, considering that my Dad actually happens to be friends with Bullock. However, I will do my utmost to be unbiased and as professional as these reviews get by keeping any personal feelings I hold towards Bullock out of my review and commentary. Bullock has stated that he had the editors at AuthorHouse review his book and edit it, however, after looking through reviews of AuthorHouse’s services and their FAQ (link their FAQ), AuthorHouse only offers suggestions for edits. It is entirely up to the author if they wish to accept these edits. I have reason to believe, through a multitude of spelling errors and grammatical mistakes, that this book never made it past chapter 3 of editing, if it was even edited at all. It gets worse as it goes, which seems to defy all logic. As an author writes a book, especially for their first time around, you would assume that the book would get better as it goes with their skill in writing improving over time. The exact opposite happens in this book, and it gets so much worse than it started as it goes. Bullock has also stated that he did not review the book very many times himself or have others go over it very many times as it can “cause the book to lose its story.” It doesn’t take very long to find that this statement is more than just a little wrong. Tony Smith, the author of Fukushima and the Coming Tokyo Earthquake stated that an author should go over their book “Enough times that if someone would plagiarize your work you would recognize it instantly (source).” Most authors tend to agree with Smith, and if any author begins to hate their work from reading it so much or the words start to blur together, they should have a good, qualified, and supportive editor behind them. Not their friends acting as an editor, but an actual editor who went to school and studied the language the author is writing it well enough that they know the ins and outs of how words work together and how stories flow. A good editor will catch plotholes and inconsistencies; they will point out when your story is starting to flounder and fall apart; they will point out things that need to be cut and things that need to be elaborated on. If Bullock truly did have an editor, they were not a good one because none of these things happened, and if they did, I would absolutely hate to be the one to read through the first manuscript because The Rose Council: The Kaiser Mage was absolutely horrendous to read through and I can barely imagine what it would be like to edit it. To combat the point that the “book will lose its story” it doesn’t take very many brain cells to figure out that if you are losing your story through the editing process, then perhaps it wasn’t a good story to begin with. I have rarely met an author who goes with the first storyboard or plot they laid out, let alone continuing on without making a few or many tweaks to the story itself as they go. To simply go with the first idea that you have and believe that it doesn’t need to be changed is arrogant and childish. In the words of the true Queen, Hannah Montana, “Nobody’s perfect” and this could not be more true for books. A book is never completely perfect, they can be absolutely amazing works of art, but most authors will still find something wrong or something that they wish they could change. “I hope you’re plagued with dissatisfaction your whole life, that way you’ll always strive to do better.” -Bob Ross Bob Ross may not be an author, but a book is still a work of art. Perhaps not a painting or even a drawing, but it is still a piece of artwork that many people hold dear to them. Never think that you can’t improve because you always can. We can always strive to be a better version of ourselves and to put out better work. To believe you have reached perfection, that your work simply can’t improve is incredibly arrogant and reflects poorly on yourself and your work. You can be happy with your work and love it and believe it is good, but we can always do better. On from the rant, we come to the book itself. Little known and little shared book, The Rose Council: The Kaiser Mage. This book has yet to blow up in the mainstream like Empress Theresa for how horrible it is, which isn’t surprising. It’s rather hard to find on Amazon or really any website without searching directly for the title. I don’t know if I’m pleased about that or not, because, on Amazon, it had three reviews before I posted my own. They were all rated five stars, one of them from Bullock’s friend, another from his wife, and another from an account I can only assume is fake with the review having been bought by Bullock or made by him. Either way, they were all 5-stars, and I felt immense satisfaction when my review brought it down to 3-stars. One of the reviews is written far more eloquently than the actual book is, and it’s the fake review, posted by Amazon user ‘F1.4toF32’. The sole review on this user’s account is for the book. If you look at Amazon.uk and other international Amazon pages, this user’s review doesn’t actually exist. Wonder why that is? Maybe because it’s… oh, I don’t know… fake? A purchased review so Bullock could promote his book and make it look better? *Gasp* This wasn’t a good start for The Rose Council: The Kaiser Mage. If you look at the reviews through Barnes & Noble and Goodreads, Bullock or his wife have reviewed the book and left it a 5-star review. I understand that Franzi is supporting her husband in his endeavor to be a writer, and the sentiment is sweet, but it’s enabling his terrible, terrible writing. Bullock rating the book himself though is just rather arrogant and comes off as a piss-poor attempt to try and boost his book to get more readers. Boosting his book to get more readers is definitely the last thing that Bullock needs, however. Actually, no. Bullock needs more people to read his book so he can have his massive ego stomped on and dragged through the mud. Pride is one thing, an ego is another (Sorry, my personal feelings leaked in a bit there. Though I’m choosing to keep it in).  

The Rose Council: The Kaiser Mage is a fantasy novel, supposedly the first in a series of 7 according to the fake review. It contains a pitiful attempt at a ‘sex-scene’, which safely moves it out of the young-adult audience and into the adult audience. As such, that gives me free rein to have a no-holds-barred review. This collection of words so horrendous it can barely be called a book was made for adults and therefore, has no excuse for its god-awful writing; in the story, characters, and in the grammar of the book, it is truly terrible to the extent of being painful.

The Summary: After 3000 years of peace since the banning of the Gods, a balance is about to be tipped. David, an apprentice and son to the King’s High Enchanter, struggles with the destiny he is to fulfill as the bringer to find the next Kaiser Mage. Unfortunately, the struggle of the delicate balance favors against David, who by himself has little to no power. Unexpectedly, David has discovered a new gift that he must master to find the truth about himself. After a terrible accident, Franziska, a fellow apprentice who conceals a strong love for David, finds herself trailing in David’s shadow to keep him safe. The prophecies handed down through the ages are ambiguous, however, leading some to believe that it is Franziska, not David, who is the true Bringer of the next Kaiser Mage. It is a race against time and fate to bring forth the Kaiser Mage. This summary is terrible in a lot of ways. To start, a good summary will: - Contain the main points and don’t go beyond them - Be as brief as possible (e.g. Don’t get specific with dates, numbers, details unless they are necessary) 

- Give the basic information to interest a reader in the story 

- Be concise

- Isn’t revealing of important plot points (specifically pertains to works of fiction)(Video source)

Bullock’s summary, on the other hand, is: 

- Revealing of plot points

- Exposing content of the book that isn’t actually there (It’s fucking lying to you about the content of the book) 

- Setting up relationships (which should be set up in the story, not in the summary) 

- Confusing; I still don’t know entirely what the fuck a Kaiser Mage is and I read the entire book

- Exposing plot twists

The Lies: In the summary, we actually get a few lies. First, Franziska never conceals her love for David. She is more than open about it through the entire book, and her entire reason for being and existing is solely for David and to ‘help’ him. 

Second, nothing seems to be against David except Jason, a whiny brat who thinks that he’s entitled to everything and doesn’t even show up until about half-way into the book. Even then, Jason holds absolutely no pull with anyone or anything. He couldn’t even tell a fucking fly to piss off. Third, David never struggles with his destiny. In fact, he seems more than eager throughout the entire book to achieve it. 

Fourth, Franziska never follows in David’s shadow to try and protect him. In fact, she is quite literally ahead of him the entire time. (Also this is a bit nitpicky for me, but it’s weird that David and Franzi are in love because David is the name of Bullock’s son and Franzi is his wife)

The Characters: David Saxton: The main character. Arrogant, a rebel, objectifies women, a complete Gary-Stu. He can do no wrong, is a strategic genius, and is overpowered as shit.

Franziska/Franzi: The main love interest. Scared, submissive, friendly, has occasional bursts of anger.

Rudolf: David’s father figure and mentor. Big, burly, deep voice. That’s seriously all I can think of when I think of Rudolf.

Cornelius: David’s grandfather (biological). The King’s Wizard (I didn’t know there was a difference between a mage and a wizard, but go for it I guess).

Adam Saxton: David’s actual dad. Wants the best for his son, I guess. He is a pretty good teacher, I guess. Fuck if I know how to describe him, he dies within the first three chapters.

Hans: A side character, the Fro-Drag (Frozen Dragon) Warrior. Big, buff, an asshole, emotionally stunted.

Shauna: Hans’ love interest. There is no reason for her to exist other than to give Hans a love interest. She does a few things that help the story, but other than that she serves no purpose to the story. 

Henrich: First Keeper (of a Rose Council tower, I think?). One of the bad guys, but not the Big Bad Evil Guy (BBEG). Idk…. he’s just… there. He doesn’t really have a personality.

Eve: Second Keeper (of the same tower). One of the bad guys, not the BBEG. Apparently she dresses super skimpy, but she’s proud and confident, but also cruel and evil? Zesterag: Third Keeper (same tower). David and Cornelius’s friend. Personality? He doesn’t have one. He is a major part of this book and yet I struggle to find words to describe who he is as a person, and I come up empty because he simply isn’t anything other than ‘David’s friend’ and the ‘Third Keeper’. 

Jason: The nephew to the King. Arrogant, prideful, incompetent, entitled. Not necessarily one of the bad guys, though he’s certainly painted to try and be David’s foil it just doesn’t work most of the time, if not all of the time. King Bertram Ingram: Obviously the king. Supposedly he’s the best king that the kingdom has ever seen. He’s easy-going and rather incompetent in the world of magic despite the fact that his kingdom heavily revolves around magic. 

Morgloth: The Demon god, the BBEG. You never meet him in this stupid fucking book.

If you haven’t figured out from this “short” list of characters, who they are, and their personalities, the characters in The Rose Council are bland and incredibly surface level. They never change from this starting state of who they are either. There is absolutely no character development from anyone and that makes them, as characters, feel fake and any emotion feels forced (and there certainly is a lot of ‘emotion’ that Bullock tries to push on the reader). 

The Problems: This book has… a lot of problems. This isn’t surprising at this point considering it most definitely falls under the category of a bad book. The plot itself is terrible and should have been completely different (which I will go into later). The characters are flat and never develop or gain anything more than a surface-level description. In fact, the descriptions are so surface level that often times, when Bullock describes some of the men, in particular, it comes off as incredibly homoerotic. “‘A complicated case for sure, but General Ekins’s choice in the bet political mind needed for the task was more than well chosen,’ the king replied, which surprisingly made Stark blush, more because it was coming from a man he well respected” (pg 216). Stark received a compliment from the king here and blushed. Now I know that doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s gay, but it certainly has Big Gay Energy, especially with how the rest of the book is framed in its almost excessive descriptions of men in a manner that seems over over-indulgent. I was dead convinced that David was gay too until Franziska came into the picture sheerly on how he described Rudolf. “Rudolf smiled his glowing smile David loved very much” (pg 3). “David quickly flipped the dented sword in his hands and presented it to the large man hilt first, allowing his large, thick hands to grab it” (pg 3, 4). And there are so many more examples. Also, on the topic of hands, Bullock has a weird obsession with talking about hands. Rudolf’s thick and large hands and Fraziska’s small and delicate hands more specifically. They are mentioned far too many times and it has convinced me that Bullock has a kink for hands. I’m not going to kink shame anyone, but please, for the love of J.R.R Tolkein, please, stop talking about their hands. There are a lot of grammar and spelling errors as well. Several times throughout the book, and especially in the prologue, Bullock spells ‘Kaiser’ wrong, spelling it as ‘Kaser’. You would think that if the name is on the cover of the book that you could be fucked enough to go and find spelling errors to fix it. He also spells ‘colonel’ as ‘coronal’, which after the years that Bullock spent in the military, you would think he could get right, but I guess not. ‘Till’ instead of ‘Until’, which is the use of slang I guess, but it’s used in formal conversations which would lead me to believe it’s a spelling error. And the big cherry on top, ‘trader’ instead of ‘traitor’. These are the most reoccurring spelling errors throughout the book and while I’m more than certain there are others, these are really the only ones that I can think of at the moment. There’s also so problems with Bullock switching the names (especially towards the end of the book) which makes it a struggle to follow along. E.g. he occasionally switches the name ‘David’ and ‘Jason’, or ‘Franziska’ and ‘Shauna’. This wouldn’t be a huge problem if it didn’t happen as often as it did. In fact, it wouldn’t be a problem at all if Bulock had actually been fucked to edit his book or at the very least, have someone look over it to edit it. 

Bullock also steals most of his elements in the book from other fantasy things (mainly World of Warcraft). I understand that fantasy-based things often work off of the same system and borrow a lot from each other, but they still put their own unique twist on it to make the novel feel unique and not like a rehashing of other fantasy stories. Bullock doesn’t do this, and it makes his novel hard to read and understand. If you haven’t played World of Warcraft or Warhammer before (like me) then oftentimes, you don’t know what the fuck Bullock is talking about with a Bloodthirster as he never describes what it is, what it looks like, or anything relating to painting a picture for the reader to allow them to become involved in the story. Another element that was more than blatantly stolen, especially from World of Warcraft, was the Lich King. This was supposed to be another BBEG in the book as far as I was aware, though you never really see any interaction with him. Nothing serves as a threat in this fucking book and it’s annoying. There is nothing at all to ever challenge David and to push him to develop into a better person or a better character. Everyone enables his bad behavior and encourages him to cheat so long if he wins because fuck having honor and pride in what you have done so long as you win, right?

The Plot: The plot of this book is god-awful. What should have been the plot of the entire book is shoved into the last ⅕ and finished in about ten pages. It is genuinely painful to read and I fucking hate it. The entire book up until that point was fluff and exposition and all of it was poorly done. That’s not to say that the last ⅕ of the book was done amazingly, arguably it was done far worse than the rest of the book because of how much shit was crammed into it. It became more than obvious that Bullock was done with the book and just wanted to publish it and never look at it again. The story follows David, a battle mage who has been spoken about in one of Alexander’s prophecies. I’m not entirely sure what this prophecy is since we never learn it or hear anything about it. Alexander was the first Kaiser Mage, the one who pushed the Gods from the earth since I guess that they were just going to kill all living beings on it for their own perverse pleasure (I think. It’s never fully explained). David’s role is to bring the Kaiser Mage back to earth and into being so the Kaiser Mage can put an end to Morgloth before the demon god can terrorize the earth once more. However, Alexander’s prophecy specifically states that the Bringer [of the Kaiser Mage] will be a woman. As such, some people suspect that it is actually Fraziska who is the Bringer, especially after they discover that she essentially harnesses elven magic. This is never explained in the story as to why she has elven magic, she just does. Hans is the son of the recently deceased king of the Fro-Drag clan, determined to kill the great Frozen Dragon who killed his father and the handful of other warriors before his father. They are supposed to kill the baby Frozen Dragon every five-to-ten years, though Bullock flip-flops between the number so I’m not entirely sure. It has been 25 years since the dragon has been killed and no they stand little to no chance of facing off against it, especially since they are supposed to fight the dragon without weapons (big shocker, they don’t fight it without any weapons). Shauna is Hans’ beloved and the head of the Shamans in their clan. She will do her utmost to protect Hans and to see him through to the end of his journey. 

Jason is just an entitled prick who is there to make David look better. 

The Problems: What’s wrong with the plot? Everything. Everything is wrong with the story, from the pacing to the exposition to the entire worldbuilding. I’ll move through the book chronologically with you and lay it all out for you to see. There are 27 chapters in total plus a prologue, though two chapters are labeled ‘Chapter 26’. At the end of the explanation, I’ll showcase what I think would have been a better plot for this book, especially as the start of a series. 

Prologue: Alexander’s Bible To start, the entire thing is in italics. Not only is the word ‘Prologue’ written in bold at the top, but the entire section is in italics. It’s a bit nitpicky, but I hate reading a lot in italics because it can be incredibly difficult to read at times and is often unnecessary. This is one of those times where I really think that the italics were unnecessary. 

This section, though, aside from italics is incredibly poorly explained exposition of what a Kaiser Mage is, who the Gods are, and what games they were playing with the different races of Earth, forcing them to fight for their own pleasure. A Kaiser Mage is essentially akin to a God, with some power from all of the Gods as a Kaiser Mage is created to stand-off against the Demon God, Morgloth. The worst explained part of the prologue is a game called ‘Chock’. I’m still not entirely sure what Chock is because it was terribly explained throughout the entire book. If you’re not going to explain a game well, just don’t explain it at all. Better yet, just don’t have it in the fucking book if I can’t understand what it is because it only becomes more and more confusing as you devote entire fucking chapters to someone playing the games that you came up with. These games are completely and utterly pointless and add nothing to the book besides jacking off David’s ego even more and being like “look at how great David is? Don’t you love him yet?” No! I don’t love him. I fucking hate David and everything that he is in this book because he is by far one of the most annoying characters and clearly doesn’t understand how privileged he is most of the time because he’s “good and true” and “knows the right way in a world full of darkness.” I would have liked to see him evolve to become the rebel that he was, not just have him always be like that. Or better yet, have him be a rebel, a liar, a cheat, a thief in the beginning and teach him moral values and the lesson in having pride in what you do. Teach him what it’s like to stick to a code of honor and how being a good person improves your lives and the lives of everyone around you, even if you lose in a friendly game or two. It’s so fucking stupid that Bullock didn’t do this and it makes the book more than just pointless to read. I don’t know if I can even call it a book at this point it’s just a terrible smash together of words that have been bound and framed to be a book, but it’s not. 

I fucking hate The Rose Council: The Kaiser Mage more than any terrible book I have on my shelf at this point. 

Ugh

Chapters 1-6

We start off the book by seeing David train with Rudolf, something I guess that he’s not supposed to be doing because his father doesn’t want him to train to be a soldier. Essentially, David is supposed to be training to take over as the next High Enchanter to the king, a role that his father currently fills. After the training session, David heads back to his house where his father and Franziska are already waiting for them. Adam, David’s father, has them recount the lesson that they just learned the previous day --- how to summon a golem. However, Adam specifically tells them that he doesn’t want them to summon golems because it could kill them, yet, he taught them the exact steps needed to summon one. Funny how that works, isn’t it? Surprise, surprise, as soon as Adam leaves to go and help some Elves and the two are left alone, David and Franziska summon a fucking golem. Before they summon the golem, Franziska helps David to find his magic by “reaching into herself” and “bringing forth her magic” and “putting it into David”. I honest to god hate the way that Bullock constantly describes how they “reach into themselves and bring forth their magic” to describe them using it. It’s annoying and honestly makes me deeply uncomfortable. After they summon the golem (which nearly kills them) the chapter ends and we are now introduced to Cornelius, Zesterag, and the King. We learn that Adam died while trying to fight Bloodthirster and ended up trapping the demon in his ring at the cost of his own life force. He gave the ring to the Elves to give to David. That’s the entire fucking chapter right there, explained better than it explained itself. It tries to push emotion onto the reader by having Cornelius cry over his son dying but I feel absolutely nothing when I read it because I have absolutely no reason to care about Cornelius or Adam. 

In the next chapter, we are introduced to Hans and the other warriors who are on their way to kill the Great Frozen Dragon. Bullock flips between calling the Frozen Dragon just that, the Frozen Dragon, or Fro-Drag, or a Fro-Dragon. The inconsistency is incredibly annoying, actually. We also meet Shauna, who is willing to break the rules of their ancestors in order to ensure that Hans can kill the dragon and live, even at the cost of her own life or the lives of her sisters. Yohanus is introduced, and he literally serves no other purpose than to give Hans and excuse as to why he can leave the clan after they kill the Fro-Drag, as Yohanus can take the mantle of King of the clans instead of Hans after the dragon has been killed. Hans also comes off as a massive asshole because he refuses to respond to his men so much that his men just accept that he just doesn’t respond sometimes or just won’t respond sometimes. I guess this was supposed to make Hans the “cool and mysterious” type and a total “badass”, but it just makes him look like an asshole. 

If you’re wondering, a Fro-Drag warrior is a warrior who successfully has killed the dragon and as such, has been blessed by the Dragon God with abilities beyond the normal human scope (incredibly enhanced speed, strength, reflexes, constitution, and endurance). They also become completely blue once they are turned into a Fro-Drag warrior. Apparently, nothing can beat one of these warriors, except, you know, a nearly fully grown dragon as Hans’ dead father would prove. 

After this, we discover that the elves have arrived to basically give David his father’s position, though Cornelius and Zesterag burst in, just in time, and declare that no, David will be going to study under the Rose Council to become a Rose Council Mage and Franziska will be taking the rank of the High Enchantress. So they do just that, David goes with Zesterag to study under the Rose Council and to hopefully become one of the members and Franzi goes to be the High Enchantress and fulfill everything that duty entails. 

Chapter 7-13

David, now at the Rose Council Tower and having met Eve, who he promptly decided was a disgusting whore because the dress she wore hugged her curves too tightly in his opinion, now has to read and memorize the book containing all of the rules of the Rose Council. In order to do this, David discovers that he has a “second mind” which allows him to piss off and do other things while his first mind takes in all of the information and commits it to memory. God, that would be so fucking handy when it came to school. Or just reading this book in general because it was so fucking painful and I would have rather liked to piss off and do other things instead of sitting here and reading through this garbage. In chapter 7, David also meets his servant while he is in the tower. He promptly invades her mind without her consent and finds out she was raped by another trainee in the Rose Council. Bullock uses this point to fuel why the Rose Council are all terrible people and I had to set the book down and leave it for a bit after reading that point. I can’t explain better myself why rape really shouldn’t be used as an arbitrary plot device thrown in to stir emotions than KrismonRogue does. If you want to hear him go in-depth in better words than I can use right now, please, watch his reasoning here. 

In chapter 8, Franzi cries because she has to leave her house and actually do things that a High Enchantress is supposed to do. She’s supposed to meet with the king and then go on whatever mission he designates. She cries even more because she’s terrified of the alter-rang golem (I have no idea what the fuck an alter-rang golem is, but I assume it’s big and made out of metal as the book describes) she and David summoned. As such, she’s struggling to control it. 

In chapter 9, after finishing the book of rules faster than any other mage has read it, David is introduced to the Gauntlet of Pain (edgy). Where the other mages will launch mental attacks on him and inflict him with unbearable pain. He must push through it in order to get to the end of the hallway (I think that’s what it is) where a statue of Alexander, the first and so far, the only Kaiser Mage is. Should he reach the statue, David will be granted into the life of a fully-fledged Rose Mage. He almost fucking does it on the first try because all he does is make his magic move his body while he just squirrels away in his second mind. He doesn’t stop until the First Keeper, Henrich, decides that it’s too soon for him to reach the statue and just fucking punches the lights out of David via magic. Also, apparently your hair can hurt in this fantasy world. I wasn’t aware that hair itself had nerve endings, but apparently it does. 

In chapter 10 Hans and Yohanus kill the Frozen Dragon after Shauna basically points out a crack in the magic shield that prevents any non-living object from entering. Yohanus is able to bring a spear in because of this and they kill the Frozen Dragon. The scene goes way too quickly and is incredibly muddled, which makes it super annoying and bland. The Dragon God shows up after they kill the dragon though and basically grants them both the powers of a Fro-Drag warrior. We learn that in the process of trying to help Hans and Yohanus, several of the Shamans ‘died’ because of their astral projection (though Bullock doesn’t call it astral projection). In truth, their souls were just lost from their bodies because they wandered too far from their bodies and I guess the Dragon God was willing to help the souls be guided back? I have no fucking idea though. The chapter where that’s talked about (chapter 14) is so muddled and hard to decipher. Hans is told that he is to be an assassin and needs to kill the Bringer (or the Kaiser Mage? Both?) before they use evil magic to bring Morgloth into the world and kill everyone. 

Chapter 11, Franziska has guards from the kingdom now. They’re called Marble Guards. The only one we know is Clouse and both her and Clouse have far more chemistry than David and she do. The existence of Clouse is entirely pointless however, aside from pointing out just how ‘devoted’ to David that Franzi is. We learn that the alter-rang golem, who is named Ugly, is powerful as shit and basically destroys a single building with its blast of magic lightning. We also meet Jason whose father, the Lord of the village, is then convinced needs to go and be part of the army so he has a better shot at becoming the king after the death of the current king. 

Chapter 12, David has an orgy in the showers despite the fact that he says he’s so devoted to Franzi. Actually, the orgy in the showers is completely against his own will and in fact, he has told the servant who brought this onto him that he didn’t want to have sex with her because he was so devoted to Franzi, yet, she pushes this onto him anyways and does it in public space too. If this was a good writer, this would have really fucked up David. However, Bullock is not a good writer, so I’m inclined to believe that this was written with the thought that David should be enjoying it. David gets attacked with magic per the orders of Henrich to attack David with magic whenever you saw him. He’s in the middle of the orgy when this happens and pretends to really be enjoying it while another mage, Teresina, basically funnels away the pain. Apparently convincing everybody he was a masochist was enough to deter them from ever causing him pain like that again out of the blue. It’s weird. 

David plays a shitty game with marbles called Defenders or something like that. It’s terribly explained and I’m not going to even bother trying lest I confuse myself more. That just brings me back to my previous statement of not including a game if you can’t explain it to the reader’s understanding. Of course, he fucking wins the game so hard that everyone is impressed and on his side now. He then goes through the Gauntlet of Pain again and actually succeeds this time. He’s told to repeat a phrase on the statue to finally become a Rose Mage. However this little shit, instead of repeating what the phrase is on the statue, he repeats the “actual” phrase (of which I still don’t know what it is, nor do I know what the fake phrase was). Henrich gets super pissed again because of this and says that David is disrespecting the council and Alexander and almost kills David because of it. I guess Zesterag interferes again and saves David’s life? Not too sure though. 

In chapter 13, we learn that Henrich is working for Morgloth, David attacks him because of this after freeing Zesterag’s brother, Delpapa (I think this addition was completely pointless). Zesterag and some of the guards from the castle smuggle David out of the tower and get him to safety while Zesterag pretends that he killed David so Henrich and Eve will lay off and not try to hunt him down to kill him. I’m really not interested in David’s safety at all, despite the fact that this is half-way through the book. I don’t care about anything or anyone in this story and there really isn’t a plot-line up until now. It’s just David doing whatever the fuck he wants and the rest of the crew trying to actually do their jobs. 

Chapter 14-26 (It’s actually chapter 27, but it’s labeled as 26, so fuck it) 

Hans and Yohanus return back to the village, Yohanus is declared as the king and Hans says that he’s going to go out to search for the Bringer so he can kill them before they kill the world. Shauna gets permission from Yohanus to follow after Hans. 

Chapter 15, it’s just Franziska, her guard Clouse, some soldiers, and her golem as they pass through a pass filled to the brim with Black Orcs. Supposedly these Black Orcs are super dangerous, but they don’t dare attack because the golem is so stupidly intimidating. They are on their way to the frontlines of the battlefield against the undead creature that would kill the entire land if the shield crystal isn’t recharged. Franziska’s job is to go and recharge these crystals. 

They arrive at a camp and go to meet the Sisters of Prophecy where Hans is. Hans joins the entourage (sans Shauna). Eve also joins the entourage to ‘protect’ Franziska and guide her, I guess. 

Chapter 16, It’s basically just David’s escape to the palace and then Zesterag convincing Henrich and Eve that he did, in fact, kill David. David dives into a home to hide from Eve and unbeknownst to him, there’s a naked old woman in the home. This is completely pointless to the story and I have no idea why it was included, it wasn’t even funny. We learn that Zesterag has been promoted to Second Keeper and Eve to First Keeper because Henrich has moved to be the Head of the Rose Council. Apparently it’s also a good thing that Henrich believes/does work for Morgloth because he’s their only inside to the way the demon works? This really doesn’t make sense to me, but alright, I guess. In chapter 17 David has arrived to the castle and is basically given the rank of Officer so he can hide from the Rose Council. He is to escort a bunch of new soldiers to the front lines with another officer, Jason, aka entitled brat boy. Oh yeah, for some reason Bullock decided to use a lot of military terminology and complicated names like Sergeant Major and Lord General and Field General, and as someone with no idea what ranking military people have with the titles and whatnot, this actually gets really confusing really quickly. It’s also weird to me that he’s using military terms in a fantasy world, especially because it is by no means a modern world and by no means has any other elements from real life in it. It’s rather jarring and it just doesn’t fit with the world. I understand that in fantasy an author can generally do whatever the fuck they want within reason and so long as it fits, but the military theme really just doesn’t feel like it fits in this story in any way. Bullock jumps between having guards and knights to having soldiers and officers and sergeants and lieutenants. It doesn’t work with the story and I think it needs to be removed entirely. Sure, a good majority of the story will go with it, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. The entire plot needs to be remade anyways. Especially considering that in this chapter, David gets a bracer. In this bracer, I guess that he needs to capture different types of magic in order to summon the Kaiser Mage. 

The bracer should have been given to him at the beginning of the story. Not the last ⅕. The bracer should have been the entire fucking story as he searched for the different types of magic in order to activate it so he could ‘summon’ the Kaiser Mage to their reality. It’s so fucking stupid that Bullock just throws it in during the last part of the book because now we finally have some kind of plot-line or purpose for David being out and about despite the Rose Council supposedly coming after him to kill him (although they think that he’s already dead). Here’s the real kick in the ass though: Mark ignores the entire fucking point of the bracer until about the last ten-ish pages. Everything in this godforsaken story is shoved into the last ten pages and I hate it. It was incredibly frustrating and I nearly tore the book in half down the spine I was so mad when reading it. 

Anyways, Jason is just a total brat, they get to pick Marble Guards to accompany them on their journey to the frontline. Because David just dazzled his superior with his genius so much when it came to picking his guards he gets to have four instead of two. After that, they arrive at the training grounds where the new guards are and *GASP* guess who is there???? Rudolf! David’s sugar daddy! David throws down with all of the new soldiers in a ring to prove to his daddy just how impressive his skills are now that he can use magic to help him! And his Daddy is very impressed by his skills. Then we meet KEVIN. THE MOST FUCKING BRILLIANT NAME FOR A FANTASY CHARACTER EVER. KEVIN.  F U C K I N G    K E V I N. Kevin is a half-leaderless (which I guess is a race?) and is described as such; “Kevin’s eyes were the giveaway, with the blue reddish tint in them and semi-browner skin. Almost as if Kevin had the best tan, but the leaderless people’s skin were naturally brown” (pg 174). Kevin wants to fight David because Kevin is just amazing with a blade, but David asks if they can wait until tomorrow because he’s so exhausted. 

Chapter 18 and Jason is even more of a brat and David is the star child I guess. David fights Kevin and uses his magic to cheat because otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to beat Kevin in the swordfight, meaning that Kevin is the superior fighter. However, instead of being chided for cheating and abandoning any honor in his fight, Daddy Rudolf instead praises David after he promises to never cheat again, and Daddy Rudolf tells him instead “Oh hell no, that is by far the wrong lesson to learn. There will be another time when something like this will happen, David, only it will be your life on the line. I expect you to cheat with everything got, to win, understand?” (pg 177) They do more training exercises and it’s generally pretty unnecessary other than to prove that David is just ‘one of the boys’ and that all of the soldiers love him. 

Chapter 19, Franzi has more chemistry with Hans and Clouse again than she ever did with David. Franzi makes ‘friends’ with Eve and threatens Eve that Ugly will kill her if she keeps trying to push her way into her mind. Franzi pretends she’s the Bringer to make Eve happy and Eve tells her that the Bringer is the Kaiser Mage. We already know that David is the Bringer at this point so dING DING DING FUCK YOU WE’RE GOING TO GIVE AWAY THE END OF THE BOOK RIGHT NOW. SURPRISE, BITCH, DAVID WAS THE NEW KAISER MAGE ALL ALONG. 

We also get a brief perspective from Shauna where for some fucking reason she’s in a desert. In this desert, she passes out but also befriends two Silverback Desert Hounds. She’s basically a fucking pointless character already and is just there for Hans. 

Chapter 20, Jason is more of an entitled brat. David is struggling to use his second mind for some fucking reason, even though this is literally the only point he struggles to use it. Jason is found to be a racist as he hates Captin Olek who I guess is a great captain. He just hates him because he’s black. Yay, more Jason terrible and David great content. Fucking pointless chapter. Oh yeah and somewhere in these chapters David’s ring, the one he got from his father, starts to burn him because the Bloodthirster that is trapped inside of it is pounding on the walls of the pocket dimension? And for some reason, that’s enough to cause the ring to start burning his skin. And for some reason, later on, Bullock loses all logic and insists that the ring burns him terribly enough that he starts to bleed. Despite the fact that you know, heat is used to cauterize wounds. 

Chapter 21, Jason bad, David good. Soldiers love David, hate Jason. David can talk in the language of the gods when talking to the Bloodthirster. He plays Chock again and it’s still terribly explained. It’s completely pointless other than proving that David is a very smart and very strategic boy. And that Daddy Rudolf is very impressed with him (not really because although Rudolf is there he juST IS LIKE A FUCKING CARDBOARD FIGURE IN THE BACKGROUND). 

Chapter 22, David good, Jason bad. They go through a dangerous canyon filled with Black Orc’s now that Franziska went through earlier. 

Chapter 23, Franziska meets with Dark Elves who know she’s not the Bringer and out her to Hans. For some reason, despite the fact that she’s saying she’s the Bringer and Hans is supposed to kill the Bringer, he hasn’t killed her yet. Franziska snaps and has Ugly almost kill Eve. Eve escapes in the nick of time. Franziska and Clouse still have more chemistry than David and Franziska and that is only proved further. 

Chapter 24, Shauna shows up. Franziska and Shauna bond almost immediately. David and co finally arrive at the frontlines without have lost a single man, which is supposed to be super impressive but it doesn’t feel that way. Jason bad, David good. All soldier’s love David. Oh nooo… Henrich is there and he knows that David is too. Henrich is big anger now because David is supposed to be dead. Henrich would attack David but whoops! Big wraith arrives and does it for him after Jason was left alone in the field and like a dumbass David rushed in to save Jason because he just has to be the bigger man in the situation. Wraith kidnaps David and Jason. Franziska finds out and cries more. 

Chapter 25, David wakes up in the place he was hidden after being kidnapped. Finds one of the green magics for his bracer. Yay! He runs while carrying Jason. Hans realizes David is the Bring and chase after him. Eve gets mad at Henrich and tells Ugly to kill him. Henrich is okay and fucking yeets Ugly a couple of yards away and into a mountain with magics. Eve assures Franziska that Henrich isn’t mad and takes her to a tent to “teach her things”. 

Chapter 26 part 1, David run lots while carrying Jason. Hans shows up and fucking deflects all of the magic with the magical resistance that was blessed onto him by the Dragon God when he became a Fro-Drag warrior. They fights lots. David cheats and releases the Bloodthirster from the ring because if you release the Bloodthirster he becomes your servant until you die. David realizes he fucked up. Hans knows he fucked up. Somehow David convinces Hans that he’s not even and when the Bloodthirster brags that he can never be sealed again, David fucking seals him in the stupid fucking magic bracer to get what I guess is the red life magic. Hans just so happens to be the blue life magic because “blue man must be part of blue circle hurhur.” He doesn’t absorb Hans into the bracer but somehow gets the magic? Fuck if I know. Apparently in the prophecy is also said that the Bringer would be evil and release evil magic upon the world, but that was just Alexander spouting bullshit and somehow that in itself was supposed to bring everyone together to do what needed to be done 

Chapter 26, part 2, David confronts Eve and Henrich. He fucking makes Eve his slave by brainwashing her with the bracer to make her want nothing more than to serve him. He absorbs Henrich into the bracer without any fight. He then declares himself the Kaiser mage and what a fucking surprise, he is. He then goes off to face the Lich King or Morgloth’s clone that he sent to terrorize the world because he couldn’t set foot on it himself???? Fuck if I know at this point, this book is such a fucking mess. Either way, the BBEG is Morgloth’s clone and instead of an epic fight, Kaiser Mage David just goes up and does the same fucking thing he does with Eve and brainwashes it without a challenge to be his servant. He then goes and commands it to go and kill Morgloth so like, guess there goes that fucking challenge. 

And the book is over. The book is finally fucking over. Aside from my rant about the plot issues and how the entire plot should have been centered around the Gauntlet, it has a lot of issues with formatting and phrasing and grammar. The Rose Council clearly never saw an editor a day’s worth of revision and it desperately needs to. Writing a book is hard and takes a lot of effort and research, none of these were put into The Rose Council and it shows. 

Overall, 0/10 stars. I fucking hated it.