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byulsgrease · 3 years

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if you arent too busy, can you write a idol!hwasa x idol!reader, wherein they both have to practice with each other for a special stage. However on the first meeting they become starstruck and cant believe somethings are real, but soon warm up to each other?

i'm not terribly busy but this still took a while anyway oops - sorry this took so long anon! here you go :D

if anyone has requests for the other members hmu cuz I've got 2 more hyejin reqs after this one (not that I'm complaining)

"who says we can't do something on our own?"

(hwasa x idol!reader, ~1.2k words)

cw: food + alcohol mention (y'all know how it is)

I named someone Minjeong - it's not Aespa's Winter, idk anything about 4th gen gg's - 민정 is my Korean name so it's just what came to mind

"Hey, wake up. You've gotta see this. GET UP," a voice piercing through the fog of your sleep.

What a rude awakening. Your shoulders being shaken vigorously by a pair of small hands meant they belonged to none other than Minjeong, your youngest group member. You rolled over to glare menacingly at her with one eye open, trying to pull your brain out of the slumber. All you could see was the bright light of her phone shining in your eyes - a video of some kind. But then you heard the audio:

"Have you seen the clip?" asked the interviewer.

"Yes, my members and many MooMoos made sure I saw it"— Moos? Oh, it's Hwasa. WAIT. Both your eyes flew open as you sat up and snatched Jeongie's phone out of her hand to stare at the video. Your mind immediately flashed back to the interview you did last week - they asked who you most wanted to collaborate with, if there were no limitations. Your ears started to heat up at the sheer thought of the flustered mess of an answer you gave - of course you said Hwasa. Both of you debuted relatively close to each other, within a year, but never interacted much over the years. Mamamoo as a group was a force to be reckoned with, but there was just something about Hwasa specifically. You mostly just admired her unique singing voice and undeniable stage presence, and her relentless drive to always be herself in an industry constantly trying to fit women into a box.

Finally snapping out of re-living that embarrassment, your attention turned back to the phone in your hand. The interviewer must've asked her to send a message in response to you, because you couldn't believe that she was waving and saying, "How haven't we gotten to know each other better over all these years? I'd love to work with you on something sometime," curtly dipping her head in a slight bow.

"SEE? You needed to see that," Minjeong rushed to say, full of energy. "And close your mouth, your jaw's on the floor," jokingly pointing.

You side-eyed her and shut your mouth. "Is this what Loco felt like when she called him during Hyena on the Keyboard?" you wondered aloud.

"At least she's not calling you while on camera," she commented, knowing full well that you'd probably embarrass yourself again if she did. "But hey, at least she noticed you! Can I have my phone back now?" It would be a dream come true to collaborate with her, but cross-company collabs... always a pain. that couldn't be helped. The fantasy abruptly ended with demands from your rumbling stomach. Done with your what-if's, you placed the phone back in your maknae's outstretched hand to get up and make breakfast.

~~~~

With award show season rolling around, the crazy scramble of rehearsing for special live stages without leaking sets and collabs began. Checking your email that morning showed a schedule to record the backing track for a special live stage, but that was it. With who? You texted your members a screenshot, but they all told you that block of time in their schedule was empty. A solo stage? The solo mini-album you released this cycle did relatively well, the title track got a music show win, but not a multi-week chart-topper by any means. Possibilities turning over in your mind, you stepped out from your place to head to the company, totally in the dark about what was in store.

The recording studio always smelled the same along with the couches, a comfort for all the insanely long nights and crack-of-dawn early mornings over the years. With a bit of time to kill, you plopped down on one and gingerly patted the worn cushions as some kind of symbolic thank-you for supporting you (literally).

A hesitant but loud knock sent your gaze directly to the door. Watching it slowly open, you leaned forward to see who it was. Needless to say, your jaw fell to the floor again as you clapped a hand over your gaping mouth, eyes widening. Like a soldier obeying a command, you immediately stood up as straight as possible and bowed profusely at Hwasa, sporting a very similar expression on her face (which you failed to notice, your mind running a million miles a minute).

After a series of frantic bows and miscellaneous utterances to each other, she spoke. "It's nice to finally meet you," she said with calm, surveying your frenzied state. "I guess we're granting that collab wish from your interview, huh?"

The red-hot embarrassment leapt to your face. "I...I definitely made a fool of myself answering that question. And our maknae showed me your interview clip too, which was cool, but never did I think it would actually happen," you stammered. I should probably stop talking.

"Well, here I am," she half-smiled coolly. "Let's get started, I'm really looking forward to finally work with you on this," a gleam in her eye and a hint of excitement in her voice.

The studio suddenly felt a lot smaller with her in it, despite there only being your managers, the producer, and the both of you - less people than you and your members alone. Both of you remained relatively quiet the whole time, rather unsure of what to say or talk about. You watched enough MMMTV to know that all the members on their own were shyer than together, and Hwasa knew the same was true for you. But the work basically took care of itself, seamlessly taking turns in the recording booth, witnessing each other's work style and process. The both of you knew your way in front of a mic, seasoned professionals by now. Upon wrapping up, you bowed politely to each other after a quick exchange of KaTalk info, a short and sweet goodbye.

That was... anticlimactic. I mean, it's finally happening - I can't believe it. But maybe I was too idealistic about maybe creating a meaningful relationship with her outside of work... What does she think of me?

~~~~

In the days leading up to the collab stage, you kept going back and forth on whether to reach out or not, despite now being in possession of her contact info. What would you even say? Thoughts of a witty one-liner or relatable meme came to mind, but maybe she'd assume the worst - that you were clout-chasing, or something. Anxieties abuzz, your phone vibrated in your pocket. The KaTalk notification sprawled across your screen. Speak of the devil, it's her.

"Hey, awards season has me stressed. I know you must pretty busy right now too, but I somehow get off early tomorrow if you wanna grab dinner after work?" You had to reread that one. Oh, what? She's inviting me?

Trying not to be weird about responding too quickly, you typed out, "Wow, yeah, that sounds great! ^^ wait, your company doesn't care about you going out to eat during award season?"

"nah, they stopped having that kind of control over us a while ago, we are the money-maker of the company, after all 😏"

"so I guess this means they don't check your phone either ㅋㅋㅋ"

"nope :)"

You proceeded to set a time and place to meet, someplace with meat.

In the process of feasting on an inordinate amount of gopchang imbued with a splash of beer, you learned a fair amount about each other. You talked career, professional aspirations, the weird habits of your members, and more. What surprised you most was the amount of things she already knew about you, having admitted to watching some of your behind-the-scenes content after seeing your interview clip.

"Ah... I'm sorry if I came across as distant during that first recording session," she confessed, pausing to sip her beer. "I honestly didn't know what to do with myself, I felt a little star-struck."

"Oh what?? I felt the exact same, so no worries - and sorry if I came off similarly distant," you rambled back. A bit of silence fell between you, acknowledging the mutual sentiment. You spoke up after a bit, "Thanks for inviting me out tonight, I didn't realize how much I needed this."

"Thank you for making the time, I had fun getting to know you better," she articulated with a smile. "Maybe it'll make the collab stage better," she added on jokingly. You responded with a nod and expression of mutual affirmation.

~~~~

After that, messaging each other became a regular occurrence, that gopchang outing having broken the ice. Honestly, you tried your best to talk about anything besides work, but the baseline of shared understanding connected you in a way that came more naturally than it did with your non idol friends.

You stood across the way from her at the sound check for the final stage, dressed in joggers and slides. Funny to think that you'd be recording this for real in a couple hours, making eyes with the blinking red light on the cameras surrounding you. It sucks that fans wouldn't get to experience the energy and atmosphere of the performance - Hyejin alone is one thing, but adding someone else into her stage presence? Unmatched. There's nothing quite like a live performance - and while you knew everyone in the industry dealt with the consequences of the pandemic, it certainly took a toll to perform and not feel the energy from fans. But realistically, nothing you could do about it. The sound check went over smooth like butter. The stage chemistry came flowing naturally between you both, even when bare-faced and dressed in just sweats.

And when the time came for the actual filming, you both absolutely killed it, an upbeat mash-up of TWIT and your title track. At the very end came a sliver of hesitation before throwing your arms around each other with a big smile for the ending fairy, proud of the work you accomplished together, and a mental fist-pump to yourself for making friends with one of the industry's finest.

Once again walking to a restaurant that served mostly meat to celebrate, you playfully proposed, "We... should do that again sometime." A little puff of air came out her nose in amusement.

"Yeah, we should. Too bad we're gonna have to wait a whole cycle before we can release anything else together again," she sighed longingly.

"Who says we can't do something on our own?"

#did not know how to end oops #mamamoo x reader #hwasa x reader #mamamoo hwasa #ahn hyejin #hwasa fanfic #hwasa imagines #hwasa #mamamoo fic #mamamoo imagines #mamamoo scenarios #girl group fanfic #girl group imagines #girl group scenarios #kpop #kpop fic #gg fic #gg fanfic #requested

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tarotnoob · 3 years

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Feedback: Hey!! I didnt expect that you'll do a reading for me😭. I read this at 3am and istg i started crying idk why. I actually planned to reply later bcz i was literally shivering. So here we go points by point on what made this reading so so so accurate shall we?

1. first thing is that I've been seeing the number 6 a lot!! Also surrounded by people with cancer and gemini placements.

2. I've been told by lots and lots of people to practice spirituality. Since childhood i was able to strongly sense people's emotions like an empath but that became overwhelming and i tried to distance myself from emotions. I think that probably blocked any spiritual gifts i have. Also if i take my solar return chart of thisyear in consideration, i have a 12th house stellium, thats what making me research about spirituality. I am really intrigued by the thought of buying tarot cards. But somehow i find it a little difficult to grasp everything since i cant even understand my own feelings and emotions now. I declined my feelings when i was young and yes i am suffering from it rn.

3. I dont even know if i have anxiety since i dont talk much about what i am going through, i try to ignore all of them problems i had in my life. There's been alot of issues lately and i wish it will come to an end. And yes i am sleep deprived oh my lord

4. Healing? Ig i am trying, to meditate and fix my whole schedule. Keeping it healthy. About new project or job, as i am a teen i was really confused about which major to choose and i recently chose MBA, the one i feel most comfortable with.

5. Interesting! The orphan card did say alot cuz yes first impressions are very important to me. I am very much of an introverted person, and people's opinion of me does matter but not a lot, I dont like overthinking about these situations bcz I was very isolated half of my life.

Cutting the ties with people, yes. I am surrounded by toxic people who i personally think are very stupid and i dont want to stay with them anymore. But they're the only one close to me so i did hold them for a lot longer than i thought.

6. The family situation. Hmm i have capricorn IC with chiron in 4th😭and cancer MC and my moon is in 10th house. Makes so much sense. My relationship with my mom isn't good. Somehow we always end up arguing when having a conversation.q

7. "You're suffering with something you aren't sharing with people" i really don't like to communicate about my personal issues with people, the only way i can take it out is on tumblr cuz all the people are strangers to me yet they're so supportive. Its a space that gave me so much happiness.

8. Again the family issues and yes its very accurate that i want to run away from my hometown. My mom is kinda toxic and she have already pressured me alot bcz of career. I love her, she's very strong to raise me up as a single mother but she never considers my feeling. This is my last year in school so yeah...the last year where i can decide which career path i have to choose. I lowkey want to leave my country and study abroad, somewhere new where i can get my independence.

9. Yes i have libra rising. And i really stopped caring about people's opinion on me. And as of now, i am very confident in myself.

10. The servant cards confused me. I literally questioned myself for an hour, is there something I've been ignoring? I'll surely look into it

Oh my lord- THANK YOU A LOT. YOU ARE AMAZING!! I am really trying to get into spirituality, ig there's time for everything. This reading really brought all of my anxieties into light and i am glad. Hope you'll have a wonderful day ahead!!🍒🌸

(I am sorry if this is too long and boring😬💕)

Irony. As I was starting to reply my computer crashed. Merc retrograde or symbolic. So, no your feedback was not too long and it is certainly not boring to hear about your life. I tend to worry and overthink, so I kept feeling like I needed to see what was up so I did a celtic cross this morning so we can look into it more. Please keep in mind I’m only a stranger online with zero details about you and your life beyond what you’ve told me, so I can only speculate as to how the cards can apply, but I do want to see if I can help more or maybe that’s my ego.

Usually I’d only take one card per position but I let them fall out how they needed to and then I clarified to double and triple check. But, that doesn’t mean I have all the answers, and my personal opinion is that more often the tarot tells us what we already know about ourselves, so what we really get from a reading is a sense of hope or validation and often times, objectivity. At least in terms of sugar-coating what is seen. I’ll jump below the pic with the clarifers so I don’t explain stuff twice.

And what I think resonates with the first reading is mostly:

- there are some real issues that have to do with family - there are issues to do with not communicating (hurt) feelings - there are issues with fear, anxiety, worry�� - unless your mom is a Sagittarius, I think the Temperance card is more about balance/patience/moderation (probably balance), and may still have to do with the divine trying to push you out of situations in which there are toxic connections (but I’m not SUPER sure about this; it could be like you have a spirit guide who is trying to help you or has been trying to give you messages in some way but it’s blocked or ignored - that’s only a guess as i’m also kind of like in need of physical proof when it comes to things haha)

So, past position in this cross was six of wands, which we saw before and, imo, confused me other than to say maybe there was a sense of needing to be liked and that could still resonate as maybe it used to matter, but doesn’t now.

It’s clarified by Hermit, then by Magician and Lovers, then by Star - all major arcana. As signs, they are Virgo, Virgo/Gemini, Gemini and then Aquarius. Their meanings would include six of wands: popularity, triumph, success, online; magician is manifestation, communication, putting something into action; lovers is relationships and communication, balance, love, choice; the star is a sense of uniqueness in approach or technology, rejuvenation, hope, wish. Hermit is isolation, learning, wisdom, reflection.

Visually there are similarities with star and magician, but hermit and six of wands are also looking up to something that looks like the star. lovers has masks, there’s an emptiness inside the female with tiny candles with moons, it again makes me think wish because we blow out candles on cakes... and when you read tarot (at least for me), you can read superficially and you can read very deeply. like i’m just going to do this only on the past so that when i go through the other cards, you can psychoanalyze yourself, haha. so i’m explaining an easy way to read. by the way, tarot becomes “easy” once you learn the meaning of the cards (which takes maybe a couple months or so), but the intuitive part of it is... long and strange and comes in different ways.

so on the superficial end of this past part, i would read as okay... there’s a sense of something to do with online and technology as well as communication and relationships... in this deck six of wands can be about acknowledgment, accomplishment or whatever...

okay let me put it like this, because the thing is that hermit and six of wands are almost like opposites so it’s as if... two ways because this could be recent past. there is a goal or hope of being acknowledged but in actuality you feel quite lonely and isolated, relationships may be difficult or your hope is to connect to other people in a more solid way - as in just being able to talk to someone. the other possibility is more positive, like you actually recently had good news or accomplished something or were recognized, particularly for something that might have to do with things related to being online/technology. but really this could just be you thinking about college, what you want to do, looking at online options for college, how to be successful or what you want to be successful in, perhaps you’re considering majors in technology or communications, hermit is ls about studying so it’s like thinking about how i can put my (future) plans for studying into action and what choices need to be made to get there.

that probably fits but i also look at these and feel a desire for acknowledgment. the lovers card makes me feel like there’s more going on under the surface in terms of your (inner) desires regarding goals and hopes. tbh i’m surprised the streength card didn’t show here as it feels similar (tho it shows up in other positions for this cross). overall, i do tend to be cynical when i read but as i look at it, it feels like a productive recent past and the major arcanas are strong, literally nothing is negative; it’s just that i went in expecting stuff because the nine of swords came up in the previous reading and there seems to be angst but. i mean, there’s not here lol.

so the present card at first (first cards i drew) were seven of wands and tower, which can be negative as it’s going on the defense or guard up and tower, which can freak people out and it came out in the previous reading and we were trying to figure that out as it was clarifying the confusing servant card.

the cards that clarified these cards are ace of wands and five of cups. so also a little more on the “negative” side. and in theory the past present and future cards should connect as if telling a story.

it could be that you’re feeling two separate things at present. this could be something like a fear of change, nostalgia for the past or like there’s some excitement that’s coming in but there’s also a dwelling on the negative and if this is connected to your college worries, that makes sense because there’s a sense of hope/excitement to get out of where you are, right.. but maybe this negative thing is your fear of it not working out or being able to do what you want. tower could indicate a big change coming in a positive way, like there’s a lot of expectation on your part for what going off to school could bring? but there’s still some... like... anxiety or sadness, grief... a wall being put up, having to fight off others. it could be a fear of failure or a fear of getting your hopes up b/c stuff in the past didn’t work out. when i look at the five of cups in this deck (dreamkeeprs tarot - you can probably google to study yourself) it shows a red “cord” attaching the person to the moon. the moon can stand in for emotions, so obviously it’s displaying some sort of attachment to emotions about the past, also we talked about your mom. the moon often comes up as having to do with the mother, so intuitively, this could be about something to do with your mom, as well, that there’s a cord in that connection that needs to be cut either symbolically or literally, the seven of wands could be showing that sort of “fight” happening, but that’s me reading into what you’ve told me.

the subconscious position looks heavy so let’s start with “what’s on top” or what you’re thinking about, which came out as knight of cups reversed, eight of wands, ace of pentacles, all clarified by the chariot >.>

cups reversed can indicate emotional issues/struggles/being closed off/creative blocks. i kind of feel like it fits with that sort of trepidation vibe of the present cards. there’s something new that’s being offered to you, it’s coming in fast or has to do with online and/or communication and there’s some emotional turmoil surrounding it, that it’s chariot can point to your cancer placements or we know this is about your career/education/future goals and being on track with that so overall on your mind and based on the present position, there’s some excitement around the future but also some, like, emotional imbalance. so i think you’re excited but nervous or afraid of getting your hopes up here (about college/career). but intuitively nothing is a coincidence so chariot being cancer and cancer being about the home/family, i still think this as to do with home/family, as well. and maybe that fear of this not working out is not because you, yourself, are afraid of going off, but that it’s coming from external stuff.

subconscious, please let me say i always say what i see or feel, so please don’t take offense and it’s not meant to be invasive but i had an idea of it when i pulled the cards and i wanted to be sure so i triple checked.

so at first i was given seven of swords and high priestess. this is oddly similar to stuff that showed in your first reading when i was like ok well moon plus priestess is like secret-secret lol. like it can come up if things aren’t meant to be known or someone wants to protect their energy, but it can also mean literally so i was like ok u don’t want to tell me and kept going.

it’s also odd as i was asking: what’s the root/subconscious reasoning behind your “on the top”/what are you thinking card and the present position card because, as i said, the celtic cross is all connected like a story (for me). so your root card should be the hidden/subconscious reason behind surface thoughts/actions.

my point i was going to say is it’s funny i asked for subconscious hidden and it gave me the cards that mean subconscious and hidden. but that could also mean you might not BE aware of how much the root issue is affecting your current thoughts/feelings/actions.

so i clarified further and got four of pentacles and ace of swords. seven of swords tends to have a rather negative meaning, besides secrets or lies, it’s betrayal, bitterness, resentment; on the positive side it can be taking advantage of opportunities or resourcefulness, can be greed i suppose. four of pentacles, ironically can mean this, too, greed or stinginess. clinging too much, spending too much. high priestess is hidden, knowledge, intuition, the moon (cancer).

also i got eight of cups, judgment and strength; and then the 10 of swords with a third deck...

you’d expect the subconscious to be complicated so, okay, let’s go through it. and you may be aware of this stuff already.

the way i can read this are as follows and you can choose what resonates:

- clinging onto an unhealthy idea/perception/way of communicating - a deep feeling of betrayal or bitterness toward a mother figure or that figure lying to you in some way - a desire to cut ties with the mother figure or betrayal of your own spiritual self/higher self (basically an event in which you went against your own deep rooted principles) - an unhealthy or blocked way of expressing yourself - 10 of swords alone is hard to interpret but this could be a literal death. if there was a tragic death at a young age; but also the rod is going through the steer/bison’s eye and the other cards indicate “hidden” things too, so there’s something unseen. you mentioned your mom being a single parent so, i will venture to guess that the thing that wasn’t seen was a father growing up (yet there are no specific cards that represent a father figure here) so it MIGHT be that you aren’t aware how much that has affected you - this eight of cups, judgment, streength combination could indicate: a sense of breaking away - BIG TIME. all three have in common visually or in meaning a breakinig out of an egg while still being stuck to the cord, the angel in judgment is flying up, the eight of cups is about walking away from things you’ve outgrown emotionally or that are negative and don’t suit you or literally walking away.

altogether though there is definitely the sense of walking away or a desire to get away from a (toxic) situation that is creating toxic thoughts or THEIR toxic thoughts or way of speaking - is all behind this push you’re feeling to

1. get the fuck out of there 2. do or do not cut ties with the negativity

i do know you want to get away but i keep seeing images where you’re still tied down even though you’re trying to escape

and again there is a sense of something that’s unseen or hidden here so you’ll really have to do some shadow work to fully explore any type of negative (thoughts) you are having (such as anger, depression, anxiety, bad dreams).

okay. so that was the big one.

near future is the queen of wands card. like i said before this can have to do with confidence. it can be you or another person (a fire sign?).

i’m also trying to remember if maybe i pulled the judgment/eight of cups/strength as clarifiers for this future card but it doesn’t matter.

queen of wands is clarified by knight of swords and then two of wands and justice. mostly these cards seem to be about making choices/decisions [about the future, about the near future or having to make these decisions very soon as knight of swords and 8 of wands are about fast speed] two of wands is about planning [for the future/choices] if those previous cards were clarifiers it just means that these are choices about getting the fuck out.

i mean i should say it’s more than that because those are big cards that express almost as if getting away will provide a rebirth level of transformation. like judgment is like an AWAKENING of big proportion and strength in this deck has that same feel, she’s like coming out of an EGG. it’s like being born again and queen of wands embodies that type of feeling.

so this would be like once you make these choices you will feel like this or if you have doubts in any way - it seems to work out very well and will make you feel SO MUCH MORE FREEDOM to be yourself. and basically be like you hit the restart button. this makes sense with the cards that come up later so let’s keep going. in conclusion, your near future will have to do with making choices that will lead to a sense of liberation and that they’ll come quickly or you need to make these decisions with confidence and using your brain/logic. and also becoming more confident in how you speak (about your choices?) altho i’m oddly drawn to the strength card here as she has no mouth so i guess i’m supposed to hound you about communicating better, or speaking up for yourself.

okay so the “your approach” to the situation is nine of swords. we talked about this earlier. there’s a sense of anxiety, fear. bad dreams, worry. the fox is looking up the moon in this card, so this is another mom issue, subconscious issue (which we discussed). i feel like this is super connected to that five of cups in your present position. it’s grief, sadness, disappointment. foxes are sneaky so i’m drawn back to that seven of swords happening in the subconscious, too. so your present position and root position seem super tied up. this ROOT thing if you found one you related to in my little list is causing you a lot of emotional discomfort right now. you might also be super affected by the literal moon and also again your moon/cancer placements must have a huge affect on how you feel in general or that moon placement you have is one that tends to provide a lot of anxiousness anyway. maybe you have a water moon? i forget if you told me as water moons are sensitive and anxious.

i’m a pisces moon so can relate.

the environment position is five of cups again. so exact same as your present position card. grief, disappointment, focusing on the negative, focusing on what didn’t work out in the past instead of future opportunities right behind you (also four of cups vibes). you might be so focused on the negative and past negative situation/demotions that it’s keeping you from moving forward (confidently).

the next card i did as something you aren’t seeing or advice (i asked your higher self). take that with a grain of salt as to me higher self is a cool idea but i’ve never verified it haha bc i don’t hear voices.

and this will seem similar to your first reading: lovers six of cups six of pentacles. so this can read as sharing communication with family. or six of cups and six of pentacles are both about giving something to someone, being generous, receiving or giving help. and lovers is choice, communication, love. visually it seems to be about giving, loving reciprocal relationships. clarified by nine of cups reversed, six of swords, hanged man, three of wands. at first glance this is sort of like being stuck in the past and that impeding your or standing as an obstacle toward your wish/journey/first steps you take toward the future. if we set aside the family stuff, it would just read as almost a hesitancy to take the step off the cliff as showin in the three of wands. there’s like a literal wall between you and that next step that would take you somewhere entirely different. three of wands can also be about waiting for help to come in or help almost being there and that ties in with the six of cups and six of pentacles. so. there seems to be help available or coming to you or perhaps it’s your unseen guides trying to work things out for you but this wall is again being acknowledged like in present and the top card position in regard to being SOMETHING IS STARTING THAT LEADS TO A NEW JOURNEY OF FREEDOM BUT THERE SEEMS TO BE A THING HOLDING YOU OR THE SITUATION BACK AND THAT HAS TO DO WITH AN UNHEALTHY OR SUBCONSCIOUS UNHEALTHY CONNECTION TO THE PAST OR A NEGATIVE WAY OF THINKING OR A LONG HELD NEGATIVE BELIEF, perhaps that you won’t succeed or don’t deserve it, i don’t really know what the wall is. but there’s help out there and it’s coming. hanged man can indicate a pause right but it can also indicate a change in perspective is needed and so i think both apply here because that change in perception seems to be something in the root position card, that toxic idea or belief. it might be caused by someone else, this insecurity but you’re the one holding onto it. and yes it is blocking you from moving forward. and it seems to also be about believing in yourself or trusting your intuition.

and seven of cups reversed also came out as a clarifier. reversed this is kind of about clarity. it can be about super confusion, but upright it’s about making a choice/decision or having too many choices or lack of clarity.

with the other cards tho i feel like this means... figuring out what you want is the first step, gaining clarity about your goal and what you want. i’m drawn to the moon and sun on this card, reversed the sun is at top, the moon is at bottom so again this is mom imagery or dealing with the subconscious stuff will help with clarity.

this card will tie into the final card which is the potential outcome if you follow this path.

so that is four of swords, ace of cups, and three of cups reversed. i feel strongly that ace of cups is the cup in the seven of cups we just saw but turned upright (when the card is reversed).

i read that as when you figure out your goal and what you want and are sure about it, the future holds a feeling of rebirth, contentment, potential love. four of swords is rest or reflection, calm. so if you deal with your shadow work and make your decisions and you do go off to college, i think you’ll see more emotioinal stability and you will let go of toxic connections (three of cups reversed). i think you’ll be able to attract more healthy emotional connections and will feel more at peace. it was clarified by ace of cups. and then king of cups and four of cups. both of those would indicate first - an emotional restart/rebirth or an offer of a more pure or healthy love. king of cups plus four of cups is fucking similar and also similar to seven of cups reversed. four of cups reversed would indicate coming out of a stage of indifference/discontent/boredom/ignorance and king of cups is emotional stability.

so my HOPE is if you do what you want to do and figure that out and go for it and achieve it, you will have healthier relationships that come to you, feel more at peace and stable, and hopefully this 9 of swords feeling and five of cups thing will go away. so i think your guides/higher self want to offer you hope and that hope will give you the confidence to push forward confidently but to also do some deep reflection about yourself and how you feel and why you don’t share those feelings and how you can do some work to make yourself feel comfortable to do so as my belief is that speaking your truth puts you in better balance and alignment. your throat chakra is probs pretty closed up and maybe also your heart so you could read up on how to work with that, can be as simple as wearing more green (heart) and blue (throat) or listening to some meditation videos. i also encourage you to at least keep expressing how you feel via tumblr. i agree that a lot can be said online that can’t irl and it’s healthy to share.

i hope this additional reading will help you and give you confidence and hope!

and as i was thinking the three of wands could have to do with your desire to study abroad and there might be a block that seems to be in the way of that, so it could be stating what you already know about the challenges of studying abroad or it could be that there’s the opportunity to do so but there might be a pause before you’re able to do so.

i was able to study abroad for my grad school. i studied in england for about a year. i think the idea can seem overwhelming and during covid, it’s not entirely clear now which countries are open right now to travel to legally? maybe that’s why justice popped up a couple times.

but all in all from my experience it was fairly easy - i applied, was accepted, had to wait for the school to not be stupid, i applied for a loan (that i’m still paying off) which allowed me to pay for housing/necessities/tuition. challenges did include finding a place as my school did ZERO to help with that but NORMALLY i would think institutions do so and i was able to meet other foreign students.

so that anecdote is to allay any fears about abroad studies but like maybe you literally are unable to meet requirements in your situation. but if you WANT to study abroad it is very feasible and there are ways to do it and you should.

#ask #feedback #tarot #celtic cross

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alleycat97 · 4 years

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Before There Was Us

Pairing: MC x Kamilah

Tag list: @themaskedanon @onyxgaytrash @kamilahslittlehoe @kelseyapperson @lightning-fury @beyondthenakedeye28 @wildsayeed @scarlet-letter-a0114 @mrskamilxh if you want to be added or removed let me know!

...

It was just a typical Thursday night for Kamilah, number 107,328 to be exact, but who was counting? There was no more days to her. She didn’t live by a calendar anymore, there was no need, the sun rose and set each day, nothing more or less.

Kamilah typically came home from work to work, a solitude she grew use to in her many years of being alone. Except a horrific cough coming from her master suite made her alter her typical plans.

She entered the room and set her eyes on the source, Amy. Amy, the mortal, the one who came into Kamilah’s life and completely stole her heart and ran with it. The young woman had Kamilah bad, something the vampire was trying to come to terms with after being alone for over a century.

She sat down on the bed next to Amy and instinctfully placed her hand on her forehead. “How are you feeling?”

“Terrible. I think I’m dying.” Amy winced as she tried to sit up, Kamilah holding her down.

“No. You need to relax and rest.”

“I’m tired of being here...” Amy whined causing Kamilah to laugh.

“Well I don’t want to tell you I told you so, but what did I say?”

Amy groaned recalling the other night. She wanted to go bar hopping with Lily but Kamilah insisted she stay in due to the rain and flu going around. Amy insisted she was immune and went anyway. After the 4th bar and way too many shots later she was stumbling around outside waiting for Kamilah to pick her up...in the rain.

Amy just slid further into the bed in defeat not wanting to admit that Kamilah was right, she would die before she would let her have that satisfaction.

Kamilah just laughed and kissed Amy’s forehead before rising to leave. “I’ll be back in a bit, I’ll just be in my office.” She couldn’t be too hard on her. She knew what the culture was like today and young adults of Amy’s age all did these things. Except it was very different from when she was that age, she just wanted Amy to be happy.

“Kami?” Amy called out in a tone that usually gets her anything she wants.

Kamilah stopped in the threshold, “Yes habibti?”

“Can you tell me about Egypt?”

Kamilah made her way back to the bed, she knew it would come eventually, but didn’t really want it to, not wanting to recall the past.

“I don’t know Amy. It was so many years ago. I don’t think I can recall it.” She lied crawling into the bed to join Amy who instinctfully latched on.

“Please....” Amy insisted.

“Ok let’s see...Well you know of my twin brother and being Cleopatras cousin.”

“Was she your first cousin?” Amy asked.

“Well then we didn’t call them that, but yes. Her father, the one who gave Lysimachus the horse, and my mother were siblings.”

“That’s so cool! Tell me about Cleopatra! I bet you guys were like partners in crime!” Amy said getting excited.

“Well early we were pretty close. Especially when my mother passed. We would play by the Nile with the other children. Cleopatra even talked me into wrestling against the boys.”

“So that’s we’re you get your tough act from.” Amy replied.

“Cleopatra was the more exciting one as kids. She was older than me but she was smart and cunning and would do anything.”

Kamilah took a minute to just sit back and enjoy the memory’s. “A lot was expected of us even as children. Her father, Ptolemy Xll was very strict. We did have fun but we also worked like any other. He went easier on Cleopatra because he was her favorite child.”

“What about your father?” Amy inquired.

“He was a General for the Army. He was always away fighting and one day he didn’t return. Lysmachus, wanting to be like father, joined the army and went off to fight much to the pleasure of Ptolemy. He took me into the palace and I was an assistant to Cleopatra.”

“Was Eypt violent?”

“Not particularly. If anything it was flourishing. Ancient Eygpy however, is a different story. We had chores yes, the men had to fight, but we were prospering, especially under Cleopatra.”

“Tell me more about her.” Amy said shifting slightly.

“Well Cleopatra was actually from Greek descent. She could speak 7 languages and everyone loved her because she embraced Eyptian culture and opened trade to many Arab nations.”

“So if she was the favorite? What happened to her?”

“Well when she turned 18, her father passed away and she took the throne. Except she had to share it with her younger brother Ptolemy Xlll. They were forced to marry and rule.”

“Oh gross!” Amy squealed. “That’s nasty.”

Kamilah laughed, “It was very common among nobility. He was 10 at the time.”

“Ewww. Please skip this part Kami.”

“You know I was engaged then as well.” Kamilah set the trap, feeling Amy tense, she loved when Amy got jealous.

“Kami. I said skip this part!”

“Oh relax, I’m just teasing. Anyway, after Ptolemy got older her forced Cleopatra and myself out of the palace and took over as ruler.”

“What did you guys do then?”

“Julius Caesar...”

“Ya’ll fucked Julius Caesar!?” Amy said cutting off Kamilah, bolting from her sheets.

“If you would let me finish please, no we didn’t. Well I never did but she did however, but not at this point anyway. He came to the palace and she snuck into the palace inside of a bedroll.

“How did she do that?” Amy quizzed.

“Who do you think rolled her into it?” Kamilah sighed face palming.

“Oh. Right.” Amy said blushing.

“Anyway. She made an alliance with Caesar and the two formed an Army and defeated Ptolemys Army at the Nile. Ptolemy tried to escape and drowned. She took back over the throne.”

“I’m getting bad bitch vibes from her.” Amy awed. “That’s when I officially became Nomarch.” Kamilah added.

“What happened to Julius?”

“He and Cleopatra became an item and she birthed his son Ceasarion. Together she ruled with her son.” Cleopatra visited Rome but always declared to keep Egypt separate.”

“Did Caesar like that?”

“It was merely a political alliance. Caesar needed the grain from Eypgt to feed his people, Cleopatra wanted her throne back. She seduced him to get what they both wanted. She was extremely intelligent.”

“Did she ever speak of Rome?” Amy asked.

“I was there. She took me with her.”

“What!!!!! No way!”

“It was beautiful. The culture, the architecture, it was like a complete other world. But it was also scary and chaotic. The country was on the brink of civil war with the thought of Ceasar becoming the Emperor. Fear lined the streets.”

“Then he got stabbed.” Amy recalled from history class.

“Very good Amy, yes he was murdered and Cleopatra and I returned to Eygpt where she later met Marc Antony.”

“Oh he sounds hot.”

“Oh...he was.” Kamilah smiled remembering. “He was just a smart and witty as Cleopatra, a perfect match.”

“Wait...so who ruled Rome after you guys left?”

“Antony, Caesar’s great nephew Octavian, and Marcus Lepidus, know as the second triumvirate. They hunted the liberators, those who killed Ceasar and formed the Roman Empire. Antony took control of Rome’s eastern provinces, alas, Eygpt.”

“So then he and Cleopatra fell in love?” Amy asked.

“Yes. The three rulers wanted more power and Antony married Octavia, Octavian’s sister, to calm the tension and show his commitment. But he kept up his affair with Cleopatra and had three kids with her.”

“So what were you doing while this was happening?”

“I just served alongside of Cleopatra with the other Nomarchs. I was in charge of a province and I spread Cleopatra’s influence in it.”

“Was it fun? Being so important?”

“Well I don’t know about fun. I had important decisions to make that affected peoples lives.” Kamilah recalled having to make tough decisions that helped shape her into the woman she is now.

“So back to Cleopatra, what happened to her and Antony?”

“Well they decided to strikeagainst Octavian to gain control over Rome that broke into civil war. Antony fought Octavian three times and was finally defeated after all of his men deserted him.”

“They left him?”

“Battle after battle, Antonys much larger Army left him and he was finally defeated without a fight.

“What did he do then?” Amy inquired.

“He fled. He was going to be captured so he ran. He received a letter that Cleopatra was dead, which in reality she locked herself and treasure into her mausoleum. Antony stabbed himself however he didn’t immediately die and found out Cleopatra was alive. He made it to Egypt to see her and eventually die in her arms.”

“Ah how romantic!” Amy cried. “True love!!”

Kamilah continued her story, “With Antony dead, Cleopatra sent Octavian her official word to abdicate her thrown in favor of her son and then took her own life once word had spread that Octavian was coming for her and her treasures to parade her around Rome as symbol of triumph.”

“How exactly did she die?”

“Snake poison.”

“I hate snakes.” Amy said shivering, placing her head in Kamilah’s lap.

“Then Octavian had Caesarion killed and he finally cemented his legacy as the first emperor or Rome and the one and only rightful son of Julius Caesar.”

“Oh. Poor guy. How old was Cleopatra?”

“39.”

“What did you do when you found out she died?” Amy asked.

Kamilah started rubbing Amy’s hair with delicacy,

“I cried. She was like my big sister. I was off training troops when a Roman Legion attacked us. We wouldn’t submit and then I met him...”

“Gaius...” Amy started with anger.

“He attacked and killed all of my soldiers and that’s when he turned me and brainwashed me. We immediately left Egypt and I never returned.”

“Omg Kami...I’m sorry.”

“It’s ok now. I was young and dumb then, I was 34 when I was turned.” Kamilah laughed revealing her age.

“Well we should go back and visit.” Amy said yawning.

Kamilah never thought about it. Eygpt was a special time in her life, she never had anyone to share it with. Maybe it would be fun to go visit and see how much has changed. “I think that would be a great idea Amy. Amy?”

Kamilah said as she stopped rubbing the girls head and watched the younger woman sleep in her lap. She easily removed her head from her lap and quickly got up to change before rejoining her and holding her close.

“Goodnight Habibti.” She said kissing the back of Amy’s neck.

#playchoices #pixelberry #kamilah sayeed #kamilah x mc #a courtesan of rome #acor marc antony #acor cleopatra #acor julius caesar #kamilah sayeed x mc #bloodbound #bloodbound 3 #bloodbound 2 #kamilah sayeed fanfiction

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missbecky · 4 years

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Okay, time for another long post about a cool weird thing that happened with my cards last night. I still don't know how I feel about deities, I don't know that I'll ever worship one, as that's just not me to worship. But I have felt as though there was an entity, goddess, force, something trying to reach me. Any time I've tried to glean information on who it was, I kept getting a door slammed in my face. I kept getting messages that I wasn't ready. And I was totally fine with that.

I'm unemployed right now, I'm a single mom, and I live with my disabled mother to help take care of her. With COVID-19, we don't take chances as my mom is in the high risk category. What that all means is that I've had way too much time on my hands. So I've been like a sponge, soaking up all the knowledge I can when it comes to witchcraft. Not being ready wasn't that big of a deal, because it just meant I got to do more research and keep putting off stuff I didn't really want to do.

Yesterday, I did my daily card draw, and the message was suddenly way different. Change has always been in the messages, but also the stopping in order to be ready for the changes. Yesterday morning I drew the the star, the chariot, and the hanged man reversed. I took that as a go for it.

Later that day I was prowling all the research servers, and the went to Google something about deities, and found an article/blog post someone had written about wishing people would stop using a very specific tarot spread for deity identification. Naturally, I decide to do that very spread. It was a five card spread, I wrote down what I wanted to know, and started shuffling. I shuffled for what felt like forever, and then when I laid the cards out, without thinking, I laid out 7. At first I was going to put the last two back, but decided to leave them. And the cards were all over the place. But I looked at it, and thought, "whoa, whoever this is, is not messing around.

So this is what I laid out.

Before I get into breaking down what these cards meant and how each one directly correlates to one specific deity, I want to point out where my head was at going into this.

I basically really actually got started with everything like 2 weeks ago. I'm basically still a newborn, right? Anyway, as soon as I start researching, I keep getting drawn to Deities. That's weird because I'm an agnostic and basically have no interest in higher powers. If they're there cool, if not cool. I have always believed that if there is some kind of being that could mold and shape the world, then my puny human brain can't comprehend them anyway, and it's really none of my concern. So, it's been really strange that this repeatedly keeps sticking out for me. I get the distinct impression that whatever energy is reaching out to me is female, a tie to the moon, the feeling of 3 was there, I knew it had to be associated with motherhood, and just a general overall feel of the empowerment of women. Naturally, I just kind of assumed Hecate, but that never actually felt correct to me.

So the 3 of cups being the first card just kind of reinforced the sense of 3 to me, and the whole sisterhood aspects of women empowering women. I wrote down 3, sisterhood, and good times. In the spread that was supposed to be 5 cards (and I did 7), the first card was supposed to sum up who the deity was.

I love my tarot deck for the strength card the most, I think. Strength is a mama bear. Again, this confirms my feeling of being tied to motherhood. The second card was supposed to represent the deities weakness. I wrote mama bear, power, and overly protective.

The third card was the chariot, and according to the spread this was their strength, their power. I wrote down action, strength, determination, will-power.

Then I get to the 4th card, the lovers. This is supposed to be what they rule. This one had me scratching my head. Now the author said this one will be harder to figure out, because the deities could even try to be snarky with this. I didn't even know what to do with this card, but like it made sense later. As I was going through each card individually, however, I came up with nothing, and in turn wrote nothing.

Card 5 was to be their symbol or association, and I had drawn 7 card. Anyway, I began analyzing the reversed hierophant, and the reversed 2 of cups. By that point I'm feeling personally attacked. And then the King of swords felt like a slap in the face. Words like logical, smart, level headed came up, which is honestly the person I've always prided myself on being. What was that person doing trying to contact a deity? I basically had to stop and ask myself wtf I was doing.

Like all shadow work, I decided to go browse the internet to distract myself from having to think about it too much. So I start googling triple Goddess and love, even though the lovers definitely didn't feel right, I'm like what the hell? Why not? Hecate and Diana come up, well that's not right. So I decide to take away the triple deciding I could just be way off base with the whole 3 thing. So I Google goddess of female empowerment and found a list of badass goddesses, and Artemis stuck out to me. But I'm like, no, that can't be right. This peace loving hippie couldn't possibly identify with the goddess of the hunt (which was the extent of my knowledge about Artemis). I then Google goddess of sisterhood, envisioning a woman running with a girl gang fucking shit up. What the fuck do you know, but that is Artemis.

After that Google search, I decide I clearly don't know enough about Artemis, and had recently downloaded some Greek mythology books, have never had the slightest interest in Greek mythology, but I saved them in my Google drive just in case. After finding out a bit about Artemis from Google, I turned to the digital books I had.

It was crazy how each of the cards began actually tying into the mythology of Artemis. She traveled with like a gang of nymphs, which I'm sure there was some sisterhood there. She helped her mother deliver her twin brother, and became like the patron God of childbirth. She defended babies and Young girls. She only ever wanted to belong to herself and so she requested everlasting virginity. From what I read she was very protective, straight up murdered rapists, and she was strong to a fault, which made sense why the strength card was listed as weakness. Apollo challenged her to hit a target way out in the ocean that she couldn't see, telling her she couldn't do it, she did it to prove she could and there was no better sharpshooter than her. The target was Orion, the only person she ever loved. So the reversed two of cards made sense. The reversed hierophant made sense because she was not traditional, she went against the grain. Her story is far from ordinary, even by mythological standards. She was a straight up badass that lived life on her terms and no one else's. There's nothing more rebellious than a woman with such control of her own life and destiny. And of course the chariot would be her strength identification, she was nothing but action oriented. The lovers could be interpreted several ways, but I take it as a woman who loves herself so fiercely she had no need for any other kind. But also when I think of love, I don't think of romantic love, I think of the bond i share with my daughter. She fiercely loved her brother, and maybe because she helped with his birth it connected her to him similar to that of a mother and child? That of course speculation. But the lovers card could also be a jab at her eternal virginity. And the King of swords sounded exactly like Artemis.

So I'm convinced this spread is talking about Artemis, but I can't shake the aspect of 3. Can't let that one go. Don't know why. So I'm looking through the l The Greek Myths by Robert Graves, and in it he speculated that Artemis was in fact a triad/triple Goddess!!!

Needless to say, I lost my fucking shit after reading that one. I was right in what I felt about what traits I felt the energy having, and the fucking spread related with every gd card.

Oh, and apparently Artemis chose to spend most of her time in the mountains. One of my favorite thing in all of the things is the mountains of Colorado, second only to my daughter, and I even identify as connected with earth elements the most because of my love for mountains. Makes me wonder how long Artemis has been trying to get my attention 😉

Anyway, I don't know what this all means to me personally yet. I've been ridiculously drained today, it's already 11 pm, and I only just now felt like I had enough energy and focus to write this out. So haven't had much time to sit with everything I experienced and felt last night.

However, it was very exciting! And I had to share my experience!

#witchcraft #witch community #tarot #witchblr #magick #Artemis #deity #deity work

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makeste · 5 years

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BnHA Chapter 214: 4th Popularity Poll and 5th Set Climax

Previously on BnHA: Deku met a Hellboy-looking dude in another one of his One For All Dreams and they had a chat! This friendly yet intimidating fella told Deku that the power that had just exploded out of him was actually the dude’s quirk, Blackwhip. It turns out that OFA hasn’t just been stockpiling physical power; all six of the prior wielder’s quirks are included in the package as well! It’s just that up until now, none of the other wielders has ever been able to access them. Before vanishing back into the dream abyss, Deku’s new friend told him he needed to gain better control of his emotions, as his anger toward Monoma was what triggered Blackwhip’s rampage and made it so difficult to handle. Back in the real world, Deku awakened unharmed thanks to Ochako and Shinsou’s efforts. But since the teachers hadn’t called off the battle yet, Monoma came rushing in to attack, with the rest of Team B not being far behind. Mina and Mineta showed up to battle Yanagi, Shouda, and Kodai (they really need to do something about that number disadvantage), while Ochako battled Monoma and Shinsou got ready to take on Deku. The teachers are still watching btw, but it seems like they want to see how this plays out.

Today on BnHA: The newest popularity poll results are revealed and I have a lot of thoughts. A lot of thoughts. Vlad and All Might question why Aizawa wants to let the kids keep fighting, and Aizawa says it’s cuz they’re all still trying their hardest to win. Mineta saves Mina’s life and then completely ruins it because of course he does, but she takes it in stride and uses him to attack the others by flinging him at high speed to ricochet endlessly off of his grapes in a Gran Torino-esque fashion. Monoma tries to attack Deku with One for All but it doesn’t do anything (fortunately for Monoma), and Ochako then takes him down while Deku goes after Shinsou. Deku by the way is fighting quirkless because he’s worried that if he tries to use OFA right now he’ll lose control and put everyone in danger again. He and Shinsou start tusslin’ and we have a flashback to when Ponytail!Aizawa (omg) was training Shinsou on how to use his capture weapon. Back in the present, Shinsou uses the scarf to send a bunch of heavy pipes crashing down towards Deku. But Deku chooses this moment to make peace with himself and his quirk, and catches the pipes using Blackwhip.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my mostly-unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’m caught up with the manga now at chapter 225, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

how are BnHA’s Jump covers always so epic you guys

Shinsou you better watch out, Deku’s fist is too close for comfort. well you’re the one who wanted to fight him again buddy

all right now let’s check out that character poll

oh, nice

BUT WHERE ARE MY POLL RESULTS. HOLD ON A SECOND, I’M GOING TO THE WIKI TO INVESTIGATE

...okay so apparently the results were actually in chapter 207? but the color spread wasn’t released until this chapter wtf why

okay well let me analyze the color page first, and then I’ll go find and complain about the poll results

BAKUGOU AND DEKU’S SWORDS. okay I’ve seen this image before and I love it so much, and that is of course because it’s a sequel to the color page from chapter 120. and the two of them are now each carrying one half of All Might’s sword. basically this is symbolic confirmation that the two of them together will carry All Might’s legacy forward. this is so important to me you guys. this brings me so much joy and happiness

can we talk about what Hawks is wearing. I thought this was a medieval AU, but he’s looking rather steampunk to me. what, are you too cool for D&D, Hawks? also is that a literal hawk. that you’re holding. for some reason. huh

can we talk about what Todoroki is wearing?? and also what the actual hell is going on with his face? he’s wearing some sort of weird mask. and his outfit looks nothing like it did in the previous AU color spread. was Horikoshi just being extra or is this some indicator of a crazy plotline coming up for him somewhere down the road?

I notice my boy Aizawa is missing from the top ten, which is AN ACTUAL CRIME THAT SHOULD BE REPORTED TO THE POLICE, but! on the other hand! BEST FUCKING JEANIST OH MY GOD. WELCOME BACK BEAUTIFUL PRINCE. PLEASE HEAL UP SOON

loooooool Endeavor being in the top ten must have pissed off lord knows how many people. it would have pissed me off, before the Endeavorhawks arc. but I’m cool with it now. I get it. having him as your favorite doesn’t mean you’re giving a ringing endorsement of all his actions; it just means he’s a compelling character who’s been getting some really good development lately. still absurd that he’d be ranked over Aizawa, but if I’m honest with myself it really should be Jeanist who was bumped down for that. he’s just there because Japan apparently shares the same weird tastes as myself. by the way how fucking strange is it to see Jeanist without any Jeans holy shit is that even allowed

and winding down here, (1) I’m glad to see All Might still in the top ten ranks at least, (2) Iida is a handsome boy and I love how his armor is reminiscent of his Ingenium costume here, and that he’s the one actually riding the dragon (be careful Iida or my idiot son is going to fall right off its head), (3) Kirishima is still as popular as ever I see, and lastly (4) Momo being in the top 10 is giving me life and I hope she gets some more spotlight this year! it was great to see her as the head of her respective Joint Training battle team

okay! so now let me find the list from chapter 207

holy shit, okay so first of all let me just say that apparently this poll received almost 81,000 votes. for comparison, the third poll only received about 36,000

so having said that, it is absolutely astounding that my boy Bakugou came in at number one yet again, with a margin of over 1000 votes. glad to see you being appreciated boyo

and Shouto made it to #2 for the first time! good job hot and cold! the Endeavorhawks arc definitely gave him a boost as well I think. and well deserved!

and my boy Deku at #3, but while the difference between Katsuki and Shouto is only about 1200 votes, the difference between Shouto and Izuku is more than 7,400. basically the top two are in a league of their own here goddamn

and Hawks is all the way at #4! holy shit! more than 4,500 votes between him and Deku, mind, and Kirishima is nipping at his heels less than 200 votes away from him, but still, that’s amazing given how recently he made his debut and how relatively few chapters he’s been in. I expect the number of votes for him to skyrocket in the next poll, assuming we get more of that double agent storyline. Touya -- I mean Dabi -- is probably gonna get a boost too lol

my boy Finest Jeanist on God’s Green Earth is next at 6th, and then MOMO IN 7TH PLACE YAAAAAY GO MOMO

and Endeavor made it to 8th! HOLY SHIT ENDEAVOR YOU FINALLY BEAT ALL MIGHT IN THE APPROVAL RATINGS. THESE TRULY ARE MAD DAYS

Iida beat All Might as well and made it to #9! though only by 100 votes

and All Might is in 10th, and then Aizawa is at 11th. oh Aizawa. you were upstaged by a crotchety old man seeking to make amends for his past sins, and a denim-clad meme who nearly made the ultimate sacrifice against AFO and then proceeded to not be in the manga for 120 chapters and counting. but it’s okay you were never in this for the fame

anyways the rest of the results are listed here, but some quick parting remarks:

Gang Orca came in at 15th, presumably thanks to his EXTRA GUIDANCE

my boy Denki is in 16th place and I want him to keep moving up! go kick Shindou’s ass. how the hell did that tool make it all the way to 14th place

Ojiro is still inexplicably popular to me. he’s a nice guy but you could replace him with a cardboard cutout of himself probably and I bet you it would take some time before anyone noticed something was off

Jirou is at 21st despite her performance in the Band AU arc and that is fucked up, people. WHERE IS THE RESPECT

Shinsou somehow went down despite finally making his reappearance in the series?? I seriously don’t understand how popularity works, at all

Overhaul beat Mirio by 3 votes and while I’m so psyched Mirio did better than the last poll (up to 26th place! these 455 people have impeccable taste), this fact is utterly depressing to me. did these people actually read the arc, for real

NIGHTEYE IS AT 27TH AND I’M SO SAD. not about him being at 27th, because that’s actually pretty good. but just, you know. because once again I am reminded that he’s dead sob

lastly, in the American popularity poll Bakugou received 38,000 fucking votes holy shit. we may not have any fucking clue how to vote for presidents but at least we fucking got something right, goddamn. and Mirio in 9th place. and Aizawa in 6th. you guys are all right, US fandom

anyways that took like 25 years and if I’d known it was going to be this long I would have saved the poll to be its own damn recap lol. but now on to the actual chapter!

lol so Vlad is like ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS, YOU DON’T WANT TO STOP THEM??

Vlad this is just how we do things around here. not all of us can be ~safe~ teachers whose students don’t get attacked and abducted every Wednesday afternoon. some of us like to live on the edge and be super irresponsible because we’re lazy and also because the students will honestly manage to get into trouble regardless of whether we do our jobs or not

and anyways Aizawa says that if Deku’s quirk acts up again he’ll stop it so it’ll be fine

and All Might’s asking Aizawa why

well it’s obviously because he wants to give Shinsou a chance to complete his examination. and maybe he wants to see how the kids deal with this unexpected twist as well. so long as nobody gets hurt, why not

oh my god Aizawa

this man is fighting to reclaim that top 10 spot. never give up. never surrender

so we’re cutting to panels of all 9 battlin’ kids, and he says all of them are still trying to win this battle

because fucking plus ultra, in other words

sob I should be more indignant shouldn’t I. has this school actually made me come around to their way of thinking

nah, it’s only because everything is clearly fine now. had this scene taken place even 90 seconds earlier I would have been all “WHAT ARE YOU DOING, OF COURSE YOU SHOULD STOP THEM”

lol what

he just shows his affection in some very strange ways tbh

anyway so here we go! back to the kiddos! Deku and Shinsou are each holding onto Shinsou’s scarf and staring each other down!

and now Shinsou has GONE FISHIN’

this is beyond hilarious to me. oh my god. Deku you could just let go

but I guess he thought he could out-muscle him. like if anything, he’d be the one pulling Shinsou down to where he is. but instead he’s falling off of the platform where he and Ochako were standing

and Ochako’s running over and she’s all “Deku lost...?! in a power struggle?!”

that makes it sound like Game of Thrones lmao

Deku’s glancing back up at her and says he can’t use his quirk right now because he’s worried about putting everyone in danger again

yeah, that’s probably a good call. at least until you get a handle on your emotions. even ol’ Hellboy was all “much as I love my awesome fucking quirk, it’s been powered up to here and back now so results may vary”

Ochako says that in that case they should retreat and regroup

lol how are you going to fucking retreat. this has already turned into a melee battle, they’ll just follow you

and Deku says that if they retreat now, they’ll lose

ah, good point

this is their chance to capture him, when he’s exposed and his quirk which relies heavily on stealth and surprise has been neutralized

Ochako’s jogging over to him

oh my god

IT’S THE BATTLE HE’S BEEN PREPARING FOR HIS ENTIRE LIFE

oh to see Katsuki’s reaction to this. sigh

oh. but Deku is dotting and he says “not exactly”

what are you up to you mysterious little chia pet

meanwhile ASHIDO MINA IS BEING A TOTAL BADASS AND I’M HERE FOR IT

THIS ACID MAY STING! A BIT!!

(ETA: you know, I made fun at the time, but given all the other shit we’ve seen today, I have to give her credit for at least warning her opponents before attempting to maim them.)

and class B is just doing the same damn thing as before

I’m surprised they’re not trying to go on offense. mind you, it shows that they have a lot of respect for Mina’s offense and they don’t feel like getting pummeled by acid this fine afternoon, which is understandable

oh shit but here we go

MINA YOU BETTER DODGE THAT SHIT, SHOUDA’S QUIRK HAS A LOT OF POTENTIAL TO BE RIDICULOUSLY BROKEN IF HE USES IT RIGHT

...holy shit

QUICK, LET’S ENJOY THIS BEFORE HE SOMEHOW RUINS IT. WHY CAN’T WE LIVE IN THE ALTERNATE UNIVERSE WHERE HORIKOSHI GAVE US A LOVABLE, FUNNY, AND COOL MINETA AND NOT THE HOT GARBAGE PERV THAT WE HAVE TO PUT UP WITH INSTEAD

good job Mineta. how many panels before you say something stupid to enrage us all again

oh shit I scrolled down to the rest of the page and SO FAR SO GOOD?! wow this is like a record

Mineta did something smart and creative and swooped in to save a teammate and didn’t say or do anything perverted to ruin it?? better get me an umbrella cuz I suspect the other shoe will be dropping shortly

(ETA: 3... 2...)

aaaaaaaaaaaand the very first panel on the next page is him being smacked into Mina’s chest as a result of the twin impact, apparently just as planned

well so much for that. he made it a whole five panels though

hey, imagine if Horikoshi had written that scene and then not thrown in that last part in for absolutely no reason. imagine if Mineta was like that all the time. underestimated and mostly overlooked because of his mascot-like appearance and oddball quirk, but impressing us all with surprisingly clutch saves at crucial moments. kind of like the little niche that Aoyama has established for himself. it honestly wouldn’t be that hard to make Mineta an interesting and actually funny character, and the fact that we’re going on five years of the same old shit instead is kinda disheartening

anyways, enough mourning what could have been, I guess. in the meantime Mina is grabbing him and hurling him lmao

and he’s bouncing around like a ping pong ball and class B is trying to avoid getting hit by him

oh my god. he is the special attack

ain’t nobody wanna get hit by that. that’s a smart move

Shouda says he wants to pull back, but they’re kind of surrounded now and it’s hard to come up with a plan in the spur of the moment

all credit to Mina’s astounding creative mind, which has fucking flourished in these last couple of arcs and I hope it continues to do so. she is brilliant

Tsuburaba says Shouda is having to protect the other two because they’re weak at close-range combat? say what now?? how is a telekinesis quirk weak at close-range combat, exactly?? just float some metal shit into the air and wait for Mineta to inevitably ricochet into it and concuss himself and just like that you’re free to take on Mina three against one. even someone as awesome as her would struggle with that

meanwhile, Jirou is wondering why the hell the teachers haven’t stopped the battle yet

and here’s the first we’ve seen of Katsuki since The Thing happened, so yeah you bet I’m posting that shit

he looks openly confused, and not in his normal “I don’t know what’s going on and that pisses me off so Imma make an angry face” way. but in a more overtly “what the fuck” way. not that dissimilar to the way he looked when he was watching All Might battle AFO, but with less panic, thankfully

it definitely says a lot about how far his relationship with Deku has come that this is his reaction, though. confusion and maybe slight concern, rather than anger or jealousy or automatically thinking this is something new Deku had up his sleeve that he was purposely hiding from him. he really has come such a long way since Ground Beta

anyway so here’s Deku and Ochako taking on Monoma

at least someone is using that TK quirk. or is that twin impact that he’s using. well either way, at least he’s doing something and not just standing there

oh look more Monoma monologuing

officially the most dramatic motherfucker who ever lived. but more importantly,

OH MY GOD HE’S GOING TO USE ONE FOR ALL LASKDFLKJSLKDJFLK DON’T DIE MONOMA

why he would attempt to use a quirk that he has seen breaking its original owner’s bones and only MOMENTS AGO causing its owner intense pain as he flailed around out of control is beyond me. he kind of snapped here and got all go big or go home, I guess

Deku I assure you it very much can

now Ochako’s telling Monoma to stop and that it’s dangerous! and she’s charging toward him!

OH MY GOD

HE WAS FUCKING BLUFFING?? HOW

AND OH MY GOD OCHAKO, I STAN YOU SO FUCKING HARD RIGHT NOW THOUGH. IS IT JUST ME OR ARE THE LADIES THE UNDISPUTED MVPS OF THIS FIGHT!? DEKU DOES SHE HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING HERSELF OR WHAT

wow what??

so he was trying to activate it but it wouldn’t work?

well (1) he’s damn lucky it didn’t, and (2) is that because Deku’s technically quirkless? or is it because the nature of OFA makes it so it can’t be copied or passed on to anyone against the owner’s will? that is really convenient if so

(ETA: or (3) he did copy the quirk but not the accumulated power stored within it. oooh I have some thoughts on that. gonna try and take some time this evening to type out that OFA essay.)

Shinsou’s trying to save his partner, but!

oh shit

he looks so caught off guard sob. Deku are you gonna punch him. please be gentle he is still new to this

once again, I submit for your consideration: your MVP

you see Monoma, this is how you take a supposed “supporting character” quirk and elevate it to its max potential

so now Deku’s tackling Shinsou and they’re tumbling onto the ground

Shinsou’s making another attempt to get Deku to talk but our boy is too smart for that shit now. fool him once, shame on you. fool him twice, shame on him. but you still haven’t managed to fool him thrice so it looks like he can be taught!

and Shinsou is again saying he’s not the same as when they last fought

ahhhhhhhh we’re cutting back to the teachers now ARE WE GONNA GET SOME SHINY MENTOR FEELS

YESSSSSSSSSSS

HOWIRHFALSKDLFJL THE PONYTAIL LIVES, MY FRIENDS

oh my god oh my god

mentor feels! All Might you’re not the only one who’s been training kids out in the woods in the wee hours of the morning!

Aizawa is self-taught holy fucking shit this man’s talent is severely underrated

THE PONYTAIL. I NEED TO MENTION IT AGAIN FOR OBVIOUS REASONS

and I don’t think I’ve rambled about this yet, but! now we’re finally getting to see why Aizawa took such a personal interest in Shinsou, and I’ve been waiting and waiting for this and I’m so happy we’re finally getting to it. he sees himself in him. they both have powerful quirks capable of incapacitating even the strongest opponents, but the catch is that those quirks are mental rather than physical. physically they are essentially quirkless, and so if they ever get caught off-guard -- or pitted against giant robot opponents, or opponents who are otherwise immune to their abilities -- they’re at a huge disadvantage

so here’s this kid who’s very much like him, and Aizawa has no obligation to reach out to him, but he does so all the same, because he cares, and if he can help this kid fulfill his dreams and not have to stumble along and make it up as he goes the way he had to, isn’t that worth doing?

Aizawa Shouta let me just once again say that it’s a war crime that you were not ranked in the top ten, and I think we need to conduct a special investigation into these poll results. I’m only seeking justice and the truth

OKAY BUT THIS IS SOME INDIRECT HIGH PRAISE FOR THE ENTIRETY OF CLASS “NOT A SINGLE ONE OF US WAS EXPELLED” 1-A THOUGH AND I CAN’T EVEN DEAL

AND THEN THE FLASHBACKS TO SHINSOU AFTER HIS FIRST BATTLE, AND BEING SO HARD ON HIMSELF. BECAUSE HE WANTS TO LIVE UP TO AIZAWA’S FAITH IN HIM. OH MY GOD I CAN’T, THIS IS SO GOOD THOUGH AND I’M EMOTIONALLY COMPROMISED

so now Shinsou’s shouting again that he’s not the same as he was back then!

and he’s using his capture weapon to bring a bunch of heavy pipes crashing on top of them!

BUT NOW DEKU IS HAVING SOME MENTOR FEELS OF HIS OWN OH GOODNESS

;________; WHY DID THAT MAKE ME TEAR UP, SOMEBODY EXPLAIN

(ETA: I think because it’s a reminder that all of the past wielders of OFA are just as good and pure as All Might in their own ways, and they’ve all been working tirelessly to fight evil this whole time, and it’s like Deku doesn’t have just one mentor, but he has eight now.)

AAAAAHHHHHHHH

LOOK AT HIM USING BLACKWHIP IN THE SAME MANNER AS THE CAPTURE SCARF WEAPON, THOUGH?? DID SHINSOU INSPIRE HIM

(ETA: of course he did. this is Deku, he takes and learns from everyone. I love it.)

AND JUST LOOK AT THIS FUNKY LITTLE SUCCESSOR LIVING UP TO THE FAITH THAT’S BEEN PLACED IN HIM

oh my god. what a damn chapter. this recap is almost 4000 words and it was worth it. I love this arc

#bnha #boku no hero academia #midoriya izuku #aizawa shouta #shinsou hitoshi #uraraka ochako #monoma neito #ashida mina #shouda nirengeki #kodai yui #yanagi reiko #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #makeste reads bnha #shoutout to horikoshi who passed the bechdel test again today #as much grief as I give him for the mineta stuff and for his ratio of female to male heroes and ofa wielders #I gotta give him credit where it's due #and mina and ochako are amazing in this chapter right here as well #this series can be so good about some things even if other things leave a lot to be desired #that's just life I suppose #but I do appreciate the amount of asskicking from my badass ladies #and I acknowledge that it's something that's still all too rare in shounen manga #so while things may not be perfect I'll take what I can get and give my girls their props #toga mina and ochako you guys are crushing it #more of this please

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geek-gem · 6 years

Text

Reunited

5:01 pm so as of now I've seen the new Steven Universe special, "Reunited" and their will be spoilers possibly so be warned I will tag it with spoilers too.

To be honest I didn't want to immediately go on my phone and talk about this. Because just I was wondering if that was seriously all until Adult Swim came on. So the tv is now on The Loud House just commericals on now. Including I've been watching some of the show again despite how I'm critical of the show.

But let me talk about this now.

After all these years and I've been a Steven Universe fan since the Summer of 2014.....all the build up, and after going through many years of again build up and people being critical and some being well stupidly critical where me and others couldn't take them seriously. Just after everything all the other stories and theories so much stuff so much shit going on. It all builds up to this.

Now Loud House is on the Girl Guru episode enough.

But I'm gonna say some stuff and people might say better stuff then me but this is my reaction.

The special, "Reunited" and this specific Steven Bomb was all worth it and it's possibly one of the or maybe the best Steven Universe episode ever. Even though the series is a big story but in a way.....how about a comparison here it might be stupid.

Think of Infinity War....this was my kind of thing. Seeing a whole bunch of this shit and just what we get these could be first reactions.

Okay looked at the last paragraph and the other before it I'm sorry of rambling at first but seriously. I'm very positive of the episode. To be honest for the first three episodes I didn't rewatch them including July 4th fireworks starting at 7 but rewatched, "Made Of Honor" yet was mainly on my laptop. I think I'm gonna leave this episode on basically see it again.

Now I think I should get into more details. It's a really great fuckin special it is. Because it's like an event me and other fans have been waiting for in so long. Including yeah some pretty funny moments and twice they used okay spoilers now they used the Peridot flower thing twice which is funny.

But it's like an event seeing all these characters and I don't know if this is a finale to a season. Because the ending and just after it ends is surprising as hell.

Basically let's talk about the wedding. I'm gonna be honest I said woah after the whole thing Sapphire explained with Steven and Ruby surprised by a whole lot explained and then Sapphire explaining it in a simple way. Especially the fucking kiss they actually showed that. Which is pretty fuckin amazing. Especially yeah Garnet came back which is awesome. I was surprised by the kiss it's just it's surprising because they actually showed it on TV despite I suppose Rebecca Sugar didn't have fear of showing it but still.

Now to the biggest things almost just said thing. But just the Diamonds and their is so much to talk about.

The big battle especially the biggest fucking surprise the Cluster actually turns into a large arm and fucking arm wrestles Yellow Diamond's ship. The fact the Cluster is seriously that in control of it's actions is amazing and good that it's on the Crystal Gems side. Especially even Steven mentions that and the Cluster even does thumbs up twice.

Also just the battle between the Crystal Gems and the Diamonds it's fucking awesome and some surprising stuff man. Now I'm thinking I hope the Diamonds Pearls are somewhere maybe on their ships I'm worried now where are they now man.

Yet again their are indeed some funny moments especially Peridot which is quite a surprise glad Bismuth loves her attitude holy crap I remember the ideas that Bismuth might of hated Peridot and Lapis yet yesterday shit changed.

Also Lapis she came the fuck back holy fuck. Yeah I'm swearing a bit I guess in a way to express myself on this stuff. But especially before but just her entrance is amazing she fucking slams the barn on Blue Diamond. Yet also one of the biggest things. It's her interaction with the Crystal Gems before more of the battle and the whole thing of officially joining now.

I'm just remembering all the times people talking about her relationship with the Gems and now here we are man.

Seriously again lots of stuff especially the last half the fact this is three parts was surprising. It's not just tap parts it's three parts man.

But the last half which especially before that holy shit after Yellow Diamond basically poofs Peridot who has the balls to even step forward to the Diamonds after being launched by Bismuth onto Blue Diamonds face. Yellow actually runs towards Steven and fucking steps on him I'm being serious. Especially he had his shield and it protected him but fucking broke. Crap glad it didn't end on that.

But the last half again Steven's I guess in....their minds of shorts. Including able to connect with everyone and just oh shit man. Then also the last part he's trying to talk to the Diamonds and it's quite a struggle and just hearing everyone's thoughts also some silly stuff in there too man.

Yet after all that he's able to talk with them and reveal what actually happened to Pink Diamond. Then it just fucking ends with the Diamonds and especially everyone else looking at Steven seeing he's up now. But also the biggest thing the Diamonds realize who he is now.

Okay other thing I remembered which was funny was Greg surviving and getting I think I remembered he was called Cat Steven and Greg says he will rather stick with them the other Gems.

Also I don't know why I thought of this the fact Steven needs to sleep to speak to the Cluster I was thinking their gonna jam a tranquilizer or something in his neck it sounds so weird. But it's funny he went to sleep rather quickly after Greg played his guitar.

Also remembered the funny moment Ruby speeding up to Sapphire and shit's on fire and Greg playing the guitar more quickly.

Along with I wanted to mention this. This special actually fucking starts with a song by Steven especially with him reacting to some people's negative stuff and whatever looking on the more bright side of things.

Now I need to speak of the final part and this wasn't shown in the ending. The ending is left pretty open ended. Their is footage of the next episode which seems to line up with that gif of Blue and Yellow with the Crystal Gems at the house.

Holy shit especially Centi whatever she's named is gonna be part of that too. Their talking about the whole thing that the Diamonds used to wipe out most of the Gems on Earth and how it affected Gems.

But basically I should just get to the point I fucking loved this special. Especially the show started when I saw the intro I turned off my laptop well exit the screen was watching some Klayton Fioriti stuff the 20 years Lost World Jurassic Park stuff I exist that out and turned off the screen not the laptop.

Again sorry I really enjoyed the special. So much good shit. The fact we finally got this is amazing. Now we're gonna get more after this but it didn't reveal the date of what I saw.

Hopefully at Comic Con we will get more information.

Also on a funny note considering my reblog sorry for the mention gal but want to @beevean her post and how I made a joke about White Diamond. Also put back the n of her username whatever.

At first my ideal and it's was mainly a joke about she was the one who killed Pink Diamond that White Diamond is a facist. But now the theory and it works perfectly and if this is true how much symbolism Rebecca Sugar and the Crewinverse have done. The idea White Diamond distancing herself from so much shit.

She does not appear in this. In fact maybe hopefully she will appeared or even mentioned in those upcoming new episodes that maybe the Diamonds could be on good terms now. Or even maybe some Comic Con stuff but from what I know they don't really reveal something like that unless Cartoon Network fucks up but this time they didn't which is amazing man.

In a nutshell and I'm gonna copy this. This is probably one of my favorite things from series, the best Steven Bomb and my favorite of the series or just the build up is worth it. It's basically my Infinity War yet probably hopefully for other fans as well. But not the kind of Infinity War where spoilers the ending contains White Diamond making half of the universe disappear where Connie says, "Steven I don't feel so good". Okay Connie was my first choice then Greg or Peridot but Jesus Christ let's be glad their isn't something like that and wanting to keep which characters alive stop it sorry guys.

Tags done but seriously all fucking great man the best we've gotten is such a long time the greatest hopefully just sorry I'm rambling the greatest.

Edit had to click here again it's 5:46 pm I forgot the time but just got the nutshell thing on Deviantart and Loud House is on commericals gonna reblog shit. But seriously the fucking greatest.

#steven universe #su spoilers

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rustyyart · 3 years

Photo

I did a thing! Drew some actual OCs for the first time in a while. This post is about to get long so I’ll put the rest in the break. These were my first ever OCs so I have a LOT to say. Not that anyone’s reading so I’ll just use this as a time marker for future me.

Tbh I’m pretty sure the redesigns had long sleeves besides the tube top. Whoops.

Drawn: December 4, 2020

You asked for it.

Heart

My first ever OC as far as I can remember? I might’ve created Amber before her, but all of my OCs were named “Girl” or “Boy” for an embarrassingly long time. Hell, these are still named after their symbols. First drawn in 4th grade when I was nine, Heart was originally on the Titanic and was created when I was bored in class and remembered I had seen part of the movie Titanic the night before. She played the part of Rose and I mostly drew the part where it sank LMAO. She gets home to her sister (Flower) and is like “It sank” and Flower is like “Aw.” and then they go off and played video games. IDK I was a master of comics.

Heart is in a really weird place. She was this really tough tomboy who protected her more feminine sister and got into trouble a lot. She’s always been a self insert, but from 2009 - 2011 she was more of a power fantasy. She talked back to teachers and spent tons of money on whatever 9yo me wanted at the time. I remember Flower scolding her that they could only play on the computer for half an hour once a year.

When I hit middle school, and thus a new school and new people, she became a shy, almost reclusive character to fit me. I discovered anime when I was 11, so she got tsundere style mood swings. Sun and Cloud were created around that time, I think. Embarrassing real world counterparts later and she, like me, can/could barely function in their presence. A complete 180 to original her. Wow, a look into Heart’s character progression and I see myself devolving into the hermit I am today.

Obviously Heart (as a concept) is a major part of my person. RustyyHeart with my older usernames being Heart*something*. I probably just exposed more middle school cringe to the internet than I’m preparing for, but whatever. RustyyHeart was a rebrand to get away from the feminine nature of the word “heart” or straight up announcing I was a girl. I’ve since accepted the name Rusty instead, despite 14yo me fretting it sounded like a guy’s name. RustyyHeart was the work of a random name generator and I’ve loved it ever since.

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Flower

Heart’s twin sister Flower has been about the same the whole time she’s been around. Besides the Titanic sinking, she’s been by Heart’s side almost all the time. I made them have drama here and there, but they’ve always made up somehow. She isn’t particularly based on anyone, but would occasionally mold into whoever was my best friend at the time. I made her because I always felt lonely whenever I couldn’t hang out with my best friends from school. Go a step further, make a twin sister.

I’m drawing a blank on her character development, to be honest. Flower has just kind of been... there. Generally upbeat and happy and always slightly better at everything than Heart. Pre middle school, she was basically Heart v2 except she did the Dreamworks face way less often. Post middle school, she was the accidental pretty girl and Heart was jealous. She gained a bust sometime after my discovery of anime and I even occasionally made sure to draw that she wore frilly underwear. Can you tell I watched the wrong kind of anime way too young? Flower unintentionally ended up stealing the interests of Sun and Cloud.

I’m not proud of her design at the moment, but I like that I kept the pigtails on the sides of her head instead of moving them. It makes her stand out in comparison to Heart. I don’t really know if I’ll leave either’s outfit like this, granted Heart hasn’t changed much since 2012, but I want to fix them into real characters instead of whatever young me threw together.

I also noticed that somewhere in a redesign phase, Flower got significantly lighter than Heart. I made this whole post and idea about this specifically. Teenage me actually committed colorism against my own OCs. Heart was redesigned in middle school to be “ugly” to mimic all my crushes turning me down, while Flower was “pretty.” I realized that while drawing the two for the first time yesterday. Heart is overweight, darker skin tone, and painfully shy. Flower is hourglass figure, lighter skin tone, and outgoing. Something’s wrong here. In all my comics and drawings they were identical in tone or it wasn’t colored at all. I changed the skin tones within the past couple years. Holy internal bias.

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You wanna talk forgotten, dumpstered OCs? =D has got you covered. Yes her name is “Equals D” and I hate it too. She’s probably my first exploration into bisexuality TBH and was based on Kari from the Incredibles. She first met Heart and Flower when they went to a spa and she was their... idk servant I guess. She washed their hair because that’s what 9yo me thought happened at spas. I made her a punching bag character, Heart and Flower making fart noises to get on her nerves. Again, comedy genius over here. Imagine the twins’ shock when I made her their permanent live in babysitter, once again taking from her source. So they Home Alone her until she’s like “I find farts funny too!” and the twins were like “:o She’s cool!” Bam! Conflict solved!

I’m impressed at the fact younger me drew her differently than the other two. She had braces and a ponytail. Ok, I didn’t say it was an original design, it’s more of a fan art situation, but I tried something different. Every girl in my comics had the swirl pigtails besides her. She eventually lost the braces because I got tired of drawing them and they started escaping the boundaries of her mouth every time. I remember in the original comic I drew her smiling for the first time in a good amount of pages and put braces on with a caption “Remember these?” I was the only one reading my own comic YES I remember my own stolen design.

I think I changed her to older sister in the redesign in middle school. How weird would a permanent, live in ex-spa employee be? She’s the no-nonsense type who frequently injures herself attempting to be a mother figure. Think Nani from Lilo and Stitch being her main source from that point on. Her only appearance in the comic before I stopped writing it was her burning her hand and hitting her head making breakfast. She drives them to school and they never come home~~~ AKA I got started on my self insert fanfiction phase where my OCs got locked away for 2 years. She never got any attention since then and has only changed designs away from Meroko from Full Moon. Showing your stomach was strictly forbidden in my hyper holy Christian household growing up, so having her have her stomach out was a mark of being an older person. Winking Equals D, later renamed Jix, is/was near constantly shirtless as he is a male version of her and I had no guys IRL to base him off of.

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WOW that was a lot. Thank you for getting through it! I’m sorry I rambled so much. It’s 7:13 am and I finished =D at 6:08. I wanted to get all my feelings down so if I ever redo them, I can look at this and see what I thought. Feel free to leave a suggestion. I want the twins to keep their pigtails and =D to keep a ponytail though, just to keep their origins together. I’ve tried renaming them Scarlett, Flora, and Nina, but the names just don’t stick.

#My OC: Heart #My OC: Flower #My OC: Equals D #The thing on Flower's head is a headband and I still can't draw those RIP #It's actually fun to draw in younger me's doodle style with the db legs #Heart's cowlick was actually only on the left side whoops

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onestowatch · 4 years

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Caity Krone Validates The Feelings You Have For Your Crush On Her Debut EP ‘Work of Art’

Photo By: Shelby Schumitzky

Having a crush on someone can be all-consuming. It starts with texting back and forth while overthinking every reply, knowing not to invest too much of yourself into something so new. Yet you also want to believe that this time might be different. You begin to let your walls down and start daydreaming about them sitting in the passenger seat of your car, driving to a location that is truly irrelevant, as long as they’re by your side. But then suddenly, you stop at a red light and realize that you haven’t heard from them in a couple days and start to spin out over why that might be. Did you say something wrong? Did you not say enough? You check their Instagram to check if they’ve posted lately and they have. You decide it’s over. The two of you will never talk again. And you stand by that, until they text you and you fall all over again. In her debut EP, Work of Art, Caity Krone perfectly encapsulates the process of allowing someone to shape your life due to unrequited love, and all of the highs and lows that follow.

Krone starts the EP by being incredibly self-aware on the title track, which is accompanied by a music video that brings each word to life. She sings the opening lines, “Could have been a painter / Could have studied law / Instead you are my paintbrush / You’re my curriculum,” letting you know that she isn’t oblivious to her fixation on her crush. During the first verse we see Krone as an excited college student on campus, an agitated cheerleader on a football field, and a sophisticated woman swinging at a farm. According to Krone, these characters symbolize being the object of affection in the eye of your crush, being jealous that you’re not the one they’re fixated on and being the idealized version of yourself hoping to win them over, respectively. As we reach the chorus we realize that Krone is involved in a love triangle of sorts, as she sings, “You say she’s a work of art / You pick her up from school / But she blows you off / Don’t you know you’re all I want.” During the chorus we also meet a new character that has her face painted in various colors, which is representative of you being enough as your true self, flaws and all.

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As the song continues, the instrumentation on the track builds with the addition of electric guitar, percussion, and piano, which peaks during the instrumental bridge. Throughout the video there are bits of footage that were recorded on film that add a vintage-y feel, adding a certain timelessness to both it and the song. “Work of Art” functions as self-admittance of behavior, while also being confessional about feelings for a crush. “The song leans into the more jarring and creepy parts of having a crush, and the less graceful bits of wanting attention from someone who is fixated on someone else,” Krone says. The outro gives listeners closure as she decides to choose herself as she sings, “So I went back to school / Stopped drinking coffee / And talking to Molly / I spent four months writing this record about you / I’m sorry.” The last two lines are instrumental in kicking off the rest of the record, as Krone takes ownership over her narrative.

“Hotel on a Mountain,” the second track on the EP, furthers the story. Uptempo, fingerpicked, acoustic guitar initially sets the flippant tone of the song, as you could listen to the instrumental intro on repeat while shaking your hips and wagging your finger to the beat. Krone’s vocal holds an underlying attitude, that is only heightened by the lyric, as she sings, “But you live in a hotel on a mountain / Thanks for gracing us with your time.” “Hotel on A Mountain” seems to be reaffirming for Krone, knowing she deserves more. Followed up by “Thank You for the Sunday Paper,” we experience a new level of intimacy from Krone. While the previous two tracks felt a bit cheeky, yet sincere, this is the first time that we’re experiencing her with all of her walls down, vulnerable and raw. The instrumentation consists of only piano, as Krone reminisces, singing, “When our friends talk about you it's hard to drown them out / Because borrowing your dreams has left me lonely now / And I lost a part of myself that's begging to be found.” Thematically, “Thank You for the Sunday Paper” enhances the message that often the hardest decisions are usually the right ones.

The 4th song on the EP, “21,” is an interlude of sorts, being both the shortest song and the only one not containing a chorus. Krone wrote it shortly after her 21st birthday, while reflecting on the life that she had created for herself and realizing that she wasn’t where she wanted to be within her relationships. The arrangement of the electric guitar and percussion, set the tone of frustration towards herself, while the lyric exposes insecurity, as she sings, “Could I have played my cards differently baby? / Could I have shown you how you wanted to treat me? / No.” She was surrounding herself with people she didn’t like just so she wouldn’t feel alone, “There was a phase / Where I'd let anyone come around just to take up space.”

The last song on the record, “I’ve Been Lonely” brings us to a place of dream-like whimsy. The combination of the strummed acoustic guitar, piano, percussion, and banjo create a light atmosphere that supports Krone’s vocal in the most delicate of ways. The song could soundtrack anything between driving down the PCH with the sunset on the horizon to twirling around the kitchen as you make dinner for a party of one. Throughout the EP, Krone has seemed to hold herself back from imagining what it would be like to actually be with her crush. This is the first time we hear her allow herself to dream, as she sings, “So hold on to me tight / We're gonna take on the world / I'll be your baby and we're gonna take on the world.” This song is the sonic representation of what it feels like when your crush looks at you in the hallway in school, or bumps knees with you under the table at lunch, and the explosion of butterflies in your stomach ensues. While this song seems to be about another person, you could also interpret it as Krone falling back in love with herself, after trying to change herself for someone else.

Throughout these five songs we are taken through each stage of having a crush: butterflies, infatuation, idealization, jealousy, and finally the strength it takes to let it go and come back to yourself, when you know you deserve more. Krone explains, “‘Work of Art is about the way a person can sometimes feel like the undercurrent of your entire life.” She continues, “About adoring them while also being overly critical of them to try and shake yourself out of wanting them, about finding ways to reclaim your own confidence, your own magic, because it feels like you’ve had it all on the back burner for so long.” People often struggle to convey their feelings about a person that they loved, but were never really with, because the feelings seem invalid. Work of Art is a testament to the legitimization of those feelings, making everyone that listens feel more secure within themselves.

#Caity Krone #Work of Art #Indie Pop

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purplesurveys · 4 years

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897

Gonna take some liberties with bold surveys and elaborate on the ones I feel like talking about, regardless if it’s true or false; and I’ll leave blank the ones I don’t feel like touching on. You're nineteen and a vegetarian. I am three years older and eat meat almost everyday. You've been a vegetarian for over a year. You don't like John Lennon. It’s not that I don’t like him; I just don’t have an opinion on him. Of course what happened to him is very unfortunate. You are studying Mandarin Chinese. No thanks. You have blue eyes and white hair. Wrong. Dark brown and black, respectively.

People often mistaken you for sixteen or under. A few people would but I get mistaken for 17 or 18 most often. Either way everyone’s always shocked when they find out how old I actually am.

You enjoy reading and mathematics. I like reading. Mathematics not so much. You wish your family was healthier mentally. There are definitely underlying issues in there that most of them do not recognize or bother to do something about, which I find tragic because it just means that it gets passed on to future generations. Your favorite flavour of tea is mint. I mean it’s not that it’s not my favorite. I don’t like tea, period. I do enjoy other mint-flavored stuff though, like chocolate.

You listen to foreign music. Yes. I listen to American music. You watch the anime Naruto Shippuden. Other than Pokemon, I’ve never enjoyed anime. You prefer routine to your day. Yep. I like spontaneity to an extent, but when it comes down to it I find the most comfort in routine. I liked my everyday routine of getting up for school, driving, attending my classes, hanging out at Skywalk, and driving home, as monotonous as it would sound for others. It’s just more comfortable for me when things are predictable. You've never attended a concert. I’m not a big concert-goer but I’ve attended my share. I usually only go for the big acts because they’re the ones most likely to visit the country only once every few years. That being said, I’ve seen Paramore (twice), One Direction, and Coldplay. And it’s not a concert, but I also went to a WWE house show once. You're Chinese. As far as I know, no. But the history of Chinese people in our country is very extensive and I wouldn’t be surprised if I turned out to have like at least 0.6% Chinese ancestry. Your favorite sport is basketball. I tried getting into it at one point because basketball got really popular when I was in high school, but I’ve never understood the rules and as such I only watch games that my university’s team play in. Your favorite basketball team is the Lakers. When I was like, five. My dad bought an NBA game for the PS2 and the Lakers were the strongest team on that game, so solely based on that they became my favorite for a while. You basically want to marry Kobe Bryant. :( I had never felt this way, but it’s sad to come across this question now. You have a Samsung S4. Nope. I’ve never owned a Samsung phone. You hate English quite a lot. My grades in English were always good, but I just didn’t like what the class would take up. I never enjoyed analyzing literary works and cracking hidden meanings and symbolism and interpreting what characters do and say – so even though I’m able to do so, it doesn’t mean I enjoy the subject. You like playing card games. Whenever someone whips out a deck of cards at a party, 9 out of 10 times I’d stand up and move to another crowd. You think people who play League of Legends is stupid. I’m vaguely familiar with that but one thing I won’t do is shame people for what they like to do or play. You are often jealous of anything trying to take something away from you. I wouldn’t say it’s often. The feeling just pops out every now and then, and I wouldn’t describe myself as being jealous all the time. Your parents are scientists. (We are turning out to be nothing alike, my dude.) No, they are both in the hotel and restaurant industry. I secretly feel really bad because their industry is the one being hit the most during this pandemic. I’d love to tell them my concerns just so I can get it out of my system, but we’ve always been secretive with one another. You are really good at physics. I hated physics in high school, but my physics prof in college was very smart, a lot of fun, and made physics easier for me. Ended up getting a 1.00 in his class. You prefer noodles over rice. I love noodles, but no :( I never feel full from noodles and always need rice for me to feel like a meal is complete. You want to own a BMW when you're older. It would be a nice bonus, but I don’t really plan on being picky or too flashy with my cars. You were in choir in high school. I cannot sing. You like spicy food. LOVE them. I don’t have as high of a tolerance as say Koreans or Indians, but I still do like pouring chili oil or hot sauce on my dishes whenever it’s appropriate. You're short compared to your friends. I’m not dramatically short but I am the shortest out of everyone in each of my friend groups. You really like Hello Kitty and try to own a lot of it. Never liked it. I personally never saw the hype or found it adorable, but I do find it cute and fascinating when I encounter people who collect Sanrio things :) Your father is slowly dying. No, he’s in tip top shape fortunately. He plays basketball everyday and will go bike around the neighborhood sometimes. Your mother is studying in a university. She went to college in a university, but she’s not currently taking up a postgrad degree if that’s what you mean. You have a crush on someone who is younger than you. I mean, I guess. Even if she’s only a month and a half younger. You like to eat apples a lot. No fruits for me. I like certain apple-flavored things though, like juice. You've had braces and they were recently taken out. I did have braces but they were taken out around six years ago. You recently decided to have bangs for your hair. Yep and like only seven people got to see it when it was in its best form because the stupid lockdown happened righttt after. I feel like my time with bangs is definitely up but I’m not getting rid of them until I feel that enough people have seen them lmao. You eat rice at least every other day. Yeah but that’s pushing it. I have it everyday. I need it with every meal unless I was having pasta or something. You live in a huge house. It’s not huge; it’s simple and cozy, large enough for five people. You have multiple strangers living in your house with you. Nope, I live with my family. You got a large amount of Halloween candy last year. I haven’t gone trick or treating in a whiiiiile, but I did have lots of alcohol at my last Halloween hahaha. You are really good at badminton. I’m not really good, but I can hold a racket and return the shuttlecock decently. I haven’t played since the 4th grade but I think I’d be better at it now given my experience with table tennis. You like to watch Asian reality shows. I looooove the Korean reality show Return of Superman. I watch at least one segment everyday even though I’ve seen most of them at least once. You have no siblings. I have two. You hate your name. I used to, because kids tend to be bullies. I kinda love it now. You are very aggressive. I’m more passive-aggressive but I do have my aggressive moments, usually when I’ve absolutely had enough. You overeat a lot and feel very guilty afterwards. I never feel guilty about it. Food makes me happy haha. You are used to being left out. Years and years of being an outcast in school has desensitized me to it. You hate missing the person you care for. I hate it in the sense that I always wish it were easier to be together, not because I’m not supposed to miss her. You are a slow learner. Only when it comes to kinesthetic or more hands-on learning, like how to do origami or crocheting. I can’t think of any one moment that I was able to catch up whenever those kinds of activities were being taught. You don't like your teeth. I hate my front teeth and I hate that I lost my retainers. I’ve said on many occasions that one of the first things I’ll spend on with my salary is to have braces reapplied on my teeth. You have dyed your hair orange before. I haven’t. Your friends think you have a great taste in music. Not really; my friends don’t look at me and think music recommendations. But it’s fine, I never claimed to have cool music taste anyway haha. You would chose food over love anyday. Probably, lol. You often swear too much. Either when I’m by myself or with a crowd that’s comfortable with swearing. You have an older sister. No, I’m the eldest sister. Your mother owns a beautiful car. My parents own beautiful cars. You are only nice to people you trust. I’m nice to everyone, just nicer to those I trust. You like mood rings. You obsess over Candy Crush. I get phases, honestly. Right now I’ve stopped playing. You have an iPad or iPad Mini. We have an iPad but it’s like the 1st- or 2nd-gen model so it’s sorely outdated. I haven’t used it since 2016. You prefer your hair in a ponytail more. Both because of the weather and because I get more compliments when my hair’s tied up in a ponytail

You have very noticable dimples. I get compliments on those, too. My left dimple is more noticeable though; I have to smile bigger if I want my right one to show up. You always use a cute voice with people. Only with my girlfriend, and I don’t use it often. You have a blue bicycle. Part of it is blue, yes.

#survey #surveys #bold survey #that i made much longer for myself lol

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pokefanbri · 4 years

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1st I have to say this b4 I repeat the post from fb. This is a place where I can speak my mind freely without judgement, speak my peace even. Which is exactly what im gonna do so prepare for a read. So think what u want idc, but the last thing I wanna do is tick some1 I know off cause on some level there's a mutual appreciation & respect regardless of my impression. And anyone that reads this isn't obligated to understand my opinion & I dont expect u to. With my brain its my thought process to let information out of my head so I can put things aside, observe & absorb more lol. Writing is another tool or coping mechanism for my anxieties & other psych ailments, treatment for my mental health depends on it & other hobbies in other words, especially during shutdown, something to focus on. Heck even youtube is recommended by my doctor if it keeps me happy lol. But because ill be working again, I may not have time to do alot of things I like sadly..idk i just wouldnt want to be burnt out & focus on more important things. I have a high respect for anyone working around people during this time & it must worrisome for u too, means I have to keep on my toes as well soon..its a scary world out there for an introvert but I was killin it in NY too. It was just a slow steady process with all the limitations & moving my life up there wasn't easy to begin with but I pulled through & did it all...only for it to be taken away.

So, I'm an Irish, German, Canadian,British Mut from tucson. Maternal & paternal immidiate families lineage mixed made me, including my NY blood from my bio dad. The rest is all over Europe but u get the idea. Tucson may be where i was born & my 1st home without a father & raised not knowing (were mardi gras babies btw 😒)

But NY is & will forever be my 2nd home i dont care what any1 says, I felt I belonged there. Its the other half of me quite literally.Theres a memory that's really been bugging me. Last day b4 i left it, a bald eagle flew across my path in the sky no joke going NE & I was departing back to the SW. I chose the eagle years ago cause I identify with it. including the background symbolism in different phases of my life that included them lol, but to actually see one was just amazing.

They symbolize strength+freedom in general despite it standing for the country from sea to shining sea lol. Also Braviary was always in my pokemon team besides pikachu since its gen came out lol. I've always been strong, whether some believe it to be true or not is their problem, only I know the things I've gone through. Point is different ends of the spectrum its always been with me throughout in some way & im glad i got to share it with someone that gave me the freedom I needed.

But yea I experienced what its like to be there & got to know that part of me even if I didn't find him & maybe didnt care...I feel I was meant to be there. I was in touch with my roots, lower Temps & above sea level rather than high temps & below sea level 🤣 I loved everything about my time up there. It'll always be a part of me, & I hope to see it again. But I digress.

But in regards to the relationship itself, emphasizing on what i said b4. Just as it i got "settled" in it was gone & I had no clue what was happening without my knowledge, the whole plan to bring me back, all of it, the whole chain of events that unfolded the way it did starting with leaving a marriage in the 1st place to be with him i mean come on lol. Chasing a dream that didn't play out the way we had hoped. I took leap of faith & I ended up starting over twice in 1 year with no benefit of the doubt. I still have my ny health insurance for the rest of the yr, I have to add it to my list to apply again in az. Ive been wearing the wrong prescription glasses for 6 months under quarantine & they're just now getting to stage 4 of opening lol. Just understand how frustrating that actually is for someone like me & u totally get it 😅 U want to take care of business but sometimes you're limited & gotta work around it. had all that covered there & then was told I settled, wrong thing to say & its no wonder I didn't blow up in his face right there & then 😒. But I have retraint & can control myself. Though it was out of my hands the new relationship didn't have to go sour, been just as long if not more, could've actually thrived given the proper balance with room to grow. Idk, Sometimes I honestly don't think anyone believed in me. I mean I have no debt, no record, no kids, im a clean slate type of girl lol. Yes I did end up feeling unappreciated, underestimated, a bit neglected, insecure about my body, ashamed for being myself, & I shouldn't have to feel that way at all & if that happens there obviously something off. I just didnt know what it is he wanted & needed, i wanted to help & be a good partner to this dude but why is it bad to ask the same in return? I shouldn't have to drastically change myself to fit someones standard i know, but...i needed the old him back, I missed the old us & wanted to get back to that.. Was always so closed off & probably ended up in his own head who knows, maybe there was guilt for some of the things he did & didnt want to hurt me anymore, spare my feelings any more than it did b4 it was too late.idk whatever the excuse i still don't know what triggered it all to fail so easily & i don't think i ever will. But ending up with the conclusion that I was the problem, its narcissistic to even believe that & i won't accept it. Not when he can't confront his own issuse & put blame onto himself too.. it was a low blow & literally felt like my heart was pierced at the sound of it. If im to blame its the other way around as well. My point of view wasn't acknowledged so this is my take & experiences of happened so plz dont hate me for speaking my truth.

But yea I can tell when somethings not right & feel strong empathy for others emotions. I knew something was different, there were signs everywhere since the mistrust started & during the last half of that time with him I questioned everything but sat in my own headspace as well as he did just thinking about it. If anything we failed eachother, the blame is on us both but idk what else i could've done to get through to him. That's the stubbornness, he wouldn't budge. Despite how things went down..Leaves me to think, what was the point of having me there in the 1st place, to not follow through with our shared hopes & dreams but instead spiral into such resentment for me that the interest faded. But at the at the same time...even if it ended early for him, I didn't give up & I fought to keep us okay which it was for the most part. Hindsight is 20/20, it definitely wasn't negative all the time. In fact things were great between us & acted like goofballs together, that right there is a friend despite if the stronger feelings weren't mutual. Nobody with hate in their heart acts like that, he was good, the best, cheered me up when I was down, shared interests & did things for eachother. But that alone makes me question what was truth & what was fiction sometimes ever since the trust between us started to fade. Am I in the right to feel what im feeling right now? Im angry & upset yes very, but the kindness he had throughout..he did care in his own way...which makes things so much harder.

Tripadoodle if some way you're listening, I hope u know now where im coming from. For your own benefit & quest to be a better man like you always wanted...actually try. Head my advice. Making yourself better shouldn't be put on a womans shoulders to do for u without her getting lifted in return...its alot of weight to handle for 1 person to carry lol. Get off your ass & build on yourself, learn from everything that happened & become better for yourself & the sake of others, Because it starts with u. Go to church if possible or watch them, it really does help. Even from across the country I still want u to do just as good & help u as a friend. You promised we could remain friends & im holding my end of the bargain whether u like it or not lol it was your idea during the ride here. All I wanted in the end was to not lose u in my life completely...but i should be patient i know.. Theres more space, im not contacting u directly & respecting that, eventually ill stfu lol but I feel I need this rn. I should hate u,but I cant hate u, I do still care, u had that affect on me so much that I can't really listen to others when they say ur a douchbag lol, u were still my rock the whole time even if u didn't feel the same after a while & u did help me alot as well. I see the good in people & u are good, with well balanced snarkiness & humorous sass to boot. light a fire under ur own ass & ull be okay lol. Never stopped believing in u. Ive seen what you can do, you're very smart & know your sh*t, u will go far lol. And as a friend I'd lend u my strength if I could but the most I can do is pray for things like safety/protection, healing, forgiveness, guidance, etc. Leave it to God if u feel compelled to. Give zanabell a hug for me.

God i talk way too much 😅 No im not doing any of this for attention, I want my voice to be heard as well as a possible learning experience if it had that effect on anyone. The things we learn build character & help us understand a little more about ourselves. Probably shouldn't share cuz its nobody's business, yea ive thought of that too.. But its a blog lol, Tumblr allowed it to be that space, opinions and rants are allowed & encouraged. Nothing wrong with that 🤷‍♀️ so who gives a crap.

These are pictures of the NY sunrise & AZ sunset. Clouds always get me cuz of the shapes, used to to take pics of them all the time. once saw mario holding a hammer when I was a kid 😂 3rd & 4th pic is a split rainbow, never seen that b4...either someone found the gold or its deciding whether or not to connect. Probably was connected but I missed it lol. But then I looked behind me after the split 1 disappeared & a double rainbow was forming. Nature can be scary but also beautiful

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foggyinjapan-blog · 6 years

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3rd Nov. Birthday!!

For some reason I am up and awake at 6.30. I’m like a kid on Christmas morning. How did this happen? I have been struggling to wake up at 8.30 for the last week and now I'm up before the sun. I have to be in Kyoto at 10am to meet up with the hosts that will be showing me an authentic samurai experience. I leave plenty of time to get ready but of course, still rush out the door. I really don't want to be late for my date with a katana! As I ride my bike I’m singing, I don’t care if anyone hears because it’s my birthday and I’m bloody happy!! I see a police car has pulled someone over. The lights are flashing and the funniest thing ever! It’s like they have extender arms underneath them to lift them higher hahaha! I feel like that is super pointless but whatever, you go Glen Coco!

An American girl meets us at the nearby station. She is wearing a kimono and will be our interpreter. We arrive at the Samurai house which was an old samurai’s house built about 200 years ago. The lady explains that the house is in very good condition for being that old and that is a very larger house to have owned back in that period; it includes bedrooms, a tea room and kitchen, plus a guest house (3 rooms), front and back garden and an outhouse. She said for someone to have built this, they must have been in a very high role. Inside is some beautiful artwork and a statue. First we are dressed in the samurai clothing that they would have worn back then. It looks really hard to tie up and it has to be precise! In the second room we enter there are 12 panels around the room. Each panel has a picture and they all represent a month of the year. November is 2 crows in the autumn leaves. Above one of the walls there are 2 symbols cut out over the wooden beam. One symbol represents the samurai's side of the family and the other one represents the woman of the house's side of the family. They are first carved separately and then together. Beautiful. Our sensei for today explains how he is worried that Japanese history is being forgotten by some as the culture modernises. (This all coming from him and then translated by the American interpreter)

We are shown the katana and a traditional performance that is done often when practicing the art. First he bows to the audience and then the sword. When he bows to the sword, the left hand is placed on the floor first and taken off last. This is in case an enemy tries to attack while you are bowing and so you can quickly grasp your sword with your right hand. He then starts to whip it around. The sounds it makes is so loud! The art of a samurai has a lot to do with meditation. You need to be focused and mentally able to face anything. I’m very impressed with his skills. And very close, I feel like if I were any closer, I would’ve gotten a hair cut. We are taken into the back garden where the samurai demonstrates what we will be doing today. A straw mat is in front of him, and in 2 seconds flat he has sliced it up like your favourite dessert. He is very good! After this it is our turn. We go to the front garden and are all given a wooden sword. When handing a katana to another person the blade has to be facing you with your hands cupped at the bottom. We practiced the foot steps first, and then the motions with our arms. Very cool!

The interpreter asks who would like to go first. Awkward silence so I volunteer! WOOO LET’S DO IT! I am given the katana the way I just explained and have a few practice movements. It’s a lot heavier than the wooden one and it’s a little bit rickety. I move over to where the mat is standing and again, practice movements. Like when you practice your golf swing but absolutely no momentum. Right, it was time to go. The first swing was ok. I hit it really high up which meant there was a lot more mat to slice! The second one went flying over the garden, woo! By the fourth one I was a winner!! That was so much fun! I walk over to the others and I am literally shaking. What a crazy and one-of-a-kind experience!

After everyone else had had their turn, we drank some tea and headed back inside. Next to experience was meditation. I have tried many times before but haven’t actually reached full zen. It is a difficult skill for one to have. To help with today’s meditation, they have metal bowls which make a beautiful sound when played right. We face outwards and take deep breaths through the nose, out the mouth while our hosts play the sounds from the bowls. Taking in turns, a bowl is placed on our heads and played. It feels like someone is pushing really hard on your head but the sounds easily takes that feeling away. These bowls actually originate from Hong Kong (maybe?? I can’t remember!). The reason they didn’t use the Japanese version is because they were too heavy and would’ve squashed us haha! Our sensei then plays us a song on a traditional Japanese flute. It sounds exactly like historic Japan. So beautiful! I have had such an amazing experience and I’m so glad I got to do this on my birthday. November 3rd is also culture day in Japan, I have learned about the culture and history of the samurai today. Culture - check!!

I leave the samurai’s house and venture into central Kyoto. I’m pretty hungry so if I see somewhere I’d like to go for lunch, I’m going to stop. On a random side street there is a restaurant, a lot of people seem to be going in so I am intrigued. I walk in and there’s some other people waiting too; if you have to wait in a restaurant in Japan, you know it’s going to be good! I am seated on a larger table where other people are sitting too. They hand me an English and Japanese menu, brilliant! I end up ordering pork tenderloin cutlet with crab croquette which comes with rice, salad and miso. Oh, of course a beer! A couple is seated next to me and we get talking! His English is so good! I was saying how I am going to Hakuba for the winter to snowboard and he said lived in Vancouver for years. Brilliant, this is my type of person! We talked about so much shit including his eBay business and how not many people in Japan use eBay (random); ideas for my business plans in the future; how Japanese don’t speak in English a lot and it must be hard for me (it’s not); she is a DJ at a famous club in Kyoto as well! So cool! They also gave me a couple of bars to go to! Brilliant people! As we were talking they bought out sesame seeds with a mortar and pestle. No idea what to do so I start crushing them like everyone else. Once crushed, you can add your choice of sauce which are in front of you then dip your cutlets in it. Cool! The food was amazing and I’ve really stumbled onto a winner here! We cheers-ed to a great meal and I was on my way again!

I choose to do a bit of shopping after because my sister and her family sent me some money! Have a browse in the antique stores and other stores. I end up buying a shirt that says “fisherman’s club - hookers” hahaha and a brilliant hat which I am so in love with! I stop at a cafe called Cream Soda. Everything made here looks like it’s from a cartoon, cute! The girls behind me are staring at me... why! I can see you! Have you never seen a gaijin before?? (Gaijin means forgiener but literally translates to outsider haha!) I order a strawberry milk with whipped cream. It’s pretty delicious and the straw is a love heart! “I love it!”

After this I need a drink. The only bar I can find that's open at this hour (3.30pm) is an Irish bar, great! Pint of beer. Cocktail for Ash because I’m missing her! Scooner, and I am pissed haha! I had a good chat with the bartender but the only other people that were in the bar were a group of middle aged tourists. Time to go home and get ready! I’m feeling some fried chicken so I stop for some of Lawson’s famous chicken. Delicious! So bad for you though.. I’m pretty drunk at this stage and I start singing and minding my own business. Are you allowed to ride a bike when you’re intoxicated? Oh well, I’m on vacaaay!! I blink and suddenly realise that I don’t recognise anything around me... I think I’ve missed the turn. This is what I get for singing and prancing about. There’s a 7/11 on the next corner so I stop, wifi, toilet, ask for directions and leave with some more chicken hahaha! Back the way I came... I missed it by a long shot!

I get ready and grab a taxi to Zaza Pub. My taxi driver is the nicest man ever! He doesn’t know much English and my Japanese isn’t great either but we still manage to make conversation. The words we understood were: Koala, kangaroo, the station where I was going, little, have a nice day, thankyou so much. I think that was it haha! I walk into the bar and grab myself 2 Heinekens - don’t want to have to come back so soon. I end up playing darts with some French guys. The French are actually so about themselves hey! I could tell that was how they were bought up though... surely they’re not doing this on purpose. I start talking to some Brazilians and this old Japanese guy. What a legend! He knows everything! Hahaha we had great conversation to my recollection and many ‘o’ beers!! We ended up drinking and talking until late. Great guys! Time for Lawson’s chicken and bed though. Lucky I didn’t ride my bike into the city... She would not have held up!

4th Nov.

It's a write off. So exhausted and hung. The only thing I can do is make spaghetti at dinner.

#birthday #samurai #katana #foodporn #beers #celebrate

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survivorazores · 7 years

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Ep. 13 -"Bang Voyage" - Mo

https://survivorazores.tumblr.com/post/164196042628/individual-immunity-4

Im upset, Bryce was like my closest friend and apparently I threw someone under the bus which I don't recall talking shit about anyone?

Like what's even the point of having a heart to heart apologizing to me for lying if you're just gonna lie again like that's so fucking dumb y'all are dumb

Im alone

I feel so bad!!!!! This tribal is going to be so hard to clean up!!!! Now 3/4 INFPs are in jury. With my luck I'll be next. Gotta win that immunity tho! Oh my I'm so stressed. Thankfully the only person other than the Gal Pals and Ali T that I spoke to was Bryce, and now I can't talk to him!

And now Mo has gone awf in the tribe chat asking who he threw under the bus!!! YIKE!!!! AND NOW RUTHIE IS RESPONDING ADKFNJDAFKADS I love tea I love tea I love tea! Oh but now Abbey is fucked because she claimed the Mo vote was hers fadfkadj oh my god this post-tribal is going to be so messy. But the good thing is, with this vote, I didn't have to do any damage control among the others. Mo, Will, and Ruthie are all people I'm not close with and I don't have to explain myself to them. The others do. And I can sit back and watch while the others target one another. Here a nut, there a nut, everywhere a nut-nut!!! I hate myself for using the slang term nut but idk what else to say at this point!!! This is great for my game. :-) Hopefully we can get Mo out next!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhh

Congrats to Emily for winning this game, since Abbey and Amanda Lynn decided to join the losing side. Like you really think that Rafael, Bryce, and Amanda G would vote for either of them? I mean... come on... really? Dumb. So dumb.

Will lied, Ali T lied, Ruthie lied, Bryce was honest and now he's gone. Im sad that Will chose to trust 2 people who have previously lied to him and he was aware of it, rather than helping me and Bryce. I need that next immunity, or at least the idol.

What the HECK just happened? None of the girls are talking to me and I'm SURE AS HECK not going to talk to any of them first. I'm going to keep pretending I voted with them before and just go with it and maybe blow up a little that they did THIS if any of them try to confront me! I have to win immunity!

Its gonna be nearly impossible for me to be around for all the post-tribal strategy that takes place right after tribal especially since it's already difficult for me to make tribal this week if I could at all. The plan seems to be: keep Ali voting with us and target Mo next. I still feel too out of the loop. ik Ruthie told me to just enjoy my vacation and not worry about it but like, the farther this game progresses the more important it is for me to stay active because I don't want to sit on the sidelines while the rest of my alliance strategizes and inactivity can make you a target (see: Will). I'm trying to be active but this time difference is....not helping at all

YASSSSSSSSSS *spits drink* *dances hard* I thank god I have this idol this game had been a roller coaster and I'm so happy I have this I need to be smart about it tho I don't need to tell anyone, if I even tell Amanda Lynn and emily they might make me play it so YASSSSSSS YASSSSS I wanna be smart and not play it right away so I'm gonna and lie and say it's not in the 1300s but I'm shook I have it I'm legit dancing in circles it's surreal I think I can win this game now and do some damage

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QZpWtIEuhMQ

So now that I've slept and calmed down I'd like to formally apologize for some of the uh... harsh things I may have said in my previous recent confessionals. But at this point I think my ideal final three is me, Ruthie, and Ali, and I think that we could make it there. Because if Emily, Mo, or Francie get to the end they're gonna win plain and simple, I could maybe beat Mo but definitely not Emily and who knows about Francie. I don't know if I trust Amanda Lynn and Abbey enough to go to the end, plus they have the votes of the girls probably. This isn't to say that I could necessarily beat Ruthie or Ali for sure but I think I'd at least stand a chance against them. Unless I'm a total idiot and I'm being dragged along as a goat but we'll see about that.

The thing I'm gonna miss most about this game is Ali's confessional thirst. Also I'm a flop at individual immunity challenges but I was better at challenges pre-merge alsjdbdbakakahska

I swear to GOD there aren't any GOD FORSAKEN idols on this ISLAND!!! What the FUCK!!! I just want to find an idol. Come on my dudes. I just want one. I feel like the people in our idol hunting group are lying - I mean, I wouldn't tell them if I found it. So I don't blame them. But. I just... why can Amanda G find both her idols like so quickly and I have been searching,,,,,, EVERYWHERE and I can't find anything??? Like oh my god. I am frust-er-8-ted. I say it like that because three syllables isn't enough to convey my frustration. I need four. I want this immunity tonight but I really haven't been studying the symbols as much as I should. After I shower, I'm going to auditions, and I could possibly have down time then where I could just run through the symbols. If I can do it from memory right now it'd be like... plus sign, ..., smiley face, equals sign, multiplication sign, and a heart. I forget the second one. And I'm not sure if all of these are in the right spots of what I'm even supposed to do with them!!! I have a bad memory!!! But I'm excited for the comp nonetheless. I have fun doing these comps (but I have more fun when I win!!!). Hopefully I win my third immunity tonight!! If I don't, I'll expect some votes coming my way. May as well add on to that one vote I got two tribals ago, she's lonely. She needs friends. Much like I'm lonely because my friends are gone. Well, I voted one of them out. And the other was out of my control ... well we could've split the votes but we didn't because I didn't think we would need to lmao. Oops. So not really out of my control. But ANYWAYS! I'm hoping we can get Mo next! He seemed very shook when Bryce went home. Let make him shook-er!!!

Ali held me at gunpoint and threatened my family so I would write this. But in all seriousness I'm glad that there was like an actual reason for Amanda Lynn and Abbey lying to me and I would like to (somewhat) redact my previous confessionals calling them dumb. I was bitter, you'd do it too. But I do think I could beat them at the end, and I definitely don't want to go down easy now. That could all change soon but we'll have to see I guess!

I am so nervous about this comp!!! I just want to win. But I am doubtful I will win tonight :-/ ugh. I hope for the best! But will I get it? Doubtful. While I really want to win again, I also don't want to make my target bigger. But I like being immune... And I'm already a target so... The more I win the merrier? I don't know. Wish me luck anyhow.

https://survivorazores.tumblr.com/post/164240491143/individual-immunity-4-results

I'm next

I'm almost confident about the fact that i'm getting the boot tomorrow.

That was embarrassing I'm usually so good at challenges but not memory ones lol I literally need Emily to stop winning because as soon as she loses she's gone unless she has an idol and then I'll be ready to die

AHHHHHHHH idk what's more embarrassing, getting out on the third shape or being in that hangout with all the girls that turned on me last week! I still don't know what happened and I want to get to the bottom of it but at the same time URGH.

but for real my reasoning is this: I didnt tell emily because she lied to me but I still trust her and Amanda lynn shes been upfront with everything with me, she might use it against me but im really happy I told her

I'm going to have such a big head by the end of this game. I need to stop winning. But also I don't want to stop winning because it's FUN!!! I love it!!! I love not having to worry about going home at tribals. So cute. But I need to recognize that I will lose sometime and I need to keep a leveled head. But right now I'm just going to celebrate!!! I'm so happy :-) and now I can try to get Mo out this round!!! Then Will probably. But then... final six. I need to get Amanda Lynn out before she goes too far. I need to figure out how I can do that. I'll probably need to convince Ali, Ruthie, and ... Francie? I think most people know that they can't beat Amanda Lynn in the end AND she's great at words and convincing people. It's not that I'm not confident in my game and wouldn't be hopeless next to her at tribal, but I think it would be better if I was not next to her. And it would be a great move on my part orchestrating her tribal. So we'll see how that goes. Anyways, I'm going to relax for the night and hope game talk doesn't start too terribly soon. And tomorrow I GET MY BRACES OFF PREPARE FOR A VIDEO CONFESSIONAL TALKING ABOUT GAME AND NO BRACES!!!! Yay!!!

I feel worse about voting out Mo than just about anyone else in this game but everyone has to go at some point and he started acting acting shadier towards Emily and Amanda lately and whatnot. I am still going to vote him tonight I just feel really bad about it is all.

Ugh I hate doing this but I'm sorry mo mo you're leaving unless you have an idol but I have an idol aswell lol 8th: Mo 7th: Will 6th: Francie 5th: Emily 4th: Amanda Lynn Final three with myself, Ruthie and Abbie I hope this happens pls god!

Well this might be my last confessional. Who can never be sure?

http://youtu.be/vJCilFcr-mg

SO Amanda and I are on track for finals IF everything goes well. We've finally got an alliance with will that seems to be working! If everything goes well Amanda I and francie or Ali are gonna be at f3

I'm really like not about to force a tie in the F8 vote that seems so unnecessary like why do we want things to be difficult? It would only be good for me to vote out Amanda Lynn in terms of a challenge threat, backstabbing her now would result in me burning a jury vote and losing a loyal ally I had in the game. If we're being honest I don't think I really have a chance to win against most of these people, but all I can hope for is that I get to the end with people who are less liked, since I basically controlled the pre-merge and saved my ass when I needed to most. But I'm not about to bring goats to the end, I want win fairly.

Okay so I definitely should have been making confessionals throughout the round, because tribal is 90 minutes away and a lot has happened. So first, I apologized to Will. He was cool about it he’s fine. So I formed an alliance with him and Abbey and presented him a plan to get us 3 to the finals. And it kinda goes like this… First, we vote out Mo bc thats what everyone is looking to do anyway so dont rock the boat. Next, vote out Ruthie, but Will cannot vote with us. It needs to look like he is not voting with us so they don’t suspect we are together. Then at f6, we vote out Emily. Bc girl is too good at this game. She keeps winning immunity and she’s just genuinely good at this game. Then from there we pick off Ali and Francie. All of that is what I actually want to do up until the point we vote out Emily. After she goes, I planned to go to Ali and tell him why Emily had to go at f6, make up some lie about how her auction item was a Legacy Advantage that she would use at f5, and therefore she needed to go now. Then we take that opportunity to vote out Will. And then at f4 vote out Ali, so that its me, Abbey, and Francie in the f3. I feel like I could beat Abbey (sorry girl) and I feel like I could beat Francie, so that is the best case scenario. This seemed like a fool proof plan. BUT THEN. Freaking HURRICANE MO decided to blow through and start throwing my name around. So I’ve been in full panic mode for the last 2 hours bc I’m just starting to work with Will so idk how much I can trust him, and like… Emily is a smart girl. She’s got to know that at this moment, I’m her competition in the end bc I keep matching her in challenges. So I’m running around to like Ali asking for his idol (yeah, he has the idol and I’m the only one he told. So naturally, Abbey knows too), asking if people would go to rocks for me, point blank asking Emily if she’s flipping bc she and Francie have been talking about how they dont want to vote for Mo, and going to Ruthie for the first time since the Bryce vote and UGH. After 2 hours of panic, I still feel a little up in the air, but Ruthie is telling me she was going to vote for me but since I messaged her decided not to, and Emily is assuring me that she and Francie both are voting Mo, and blah blah. I’m having Ali play his spyglass anyway, but it looks like its gonna be 7-1 (I hope). I’m trying to trust my alliance… worst case? It ties, and Ali, Will, and Abbey all said they would go to rocks for me, and I’m hoping this last minute bonding between me and Ruthie would cause her to flip. In case I am voted out, I gave Abbey my auction item, which is to call any eliminated player. I was going to use it to call Ricky and apologize, but I can do that after the game, and if I am voted out, she can use it for something better. I just… really hope I survive this round.

http://youtu.be/R48dONv4Qd8 http://youtu.be/SckQyWHrgkc

If Amanda Lynn is trying to trick me again I'm going to throw my computer out the WINDOW. i mean i deserved being told the wrong way to vote once yes because of the Will thing but THEY DIDN'T KNOW I KEPT HIM I'M STILL SO SALTY, me being the bottom of the totem pole of girls? not cute.

Bang Voyage

https://survivorazores.tumblr.com/post/164276106278/tribal-13

LAST WORDS: That was so fun, I had such a blast and it honestly made my secluded summer much more exciting. I wanna say thank you to the hosts for having me and hopefully I'll be able to return one day on another season (Heroes Vs Villains) ANYWAYS. I made a bunch of new friends and I will continue to kick it and make puns with all of them.

Mo becomes the fifth member of the jury and the eighth placer of Survivor Athena: Azores

#imthegreatergood #episodes

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dylan-hague · 7 years

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Chapter 9

July 4th, 2017. 2:35 PM.

Although he was quite open about how little he valued holidays due to his upbringing, Damian had to admit that he had something resembling respect for Independence Day. Not the celebration of it, mind you, no. All the ruckus of proclaiming how great America was, and the sheer quantity of things they can cover in red, white, and blue, and that unholy cacophony called “country music” blaring from every radio station was far too obnoxious for his tastes. But Damian had a deeply rooted respect for anyone who displayed real patriotism; from the men who came together some 241 years ago and risked everything to establish a brand new nation, to the men and women who took up arms today to serve overseas for the sake of their homeland. Damian knew what it meant to devote your life to something greater than yourself; being a member of the League of Assassins meant that, if it came down, you would give your life for the League’s ideals… which Damian felt were wholly different from the ideals of his grandfather. Damian didn’t necessarily share all of Ra’s Al Ghul’s beliefs– which in part made him glad to be done with the Assassins altogether– but he did truly believe that the symbol of the League of Assassin’s stood for something more: it stood for the hope for a better world. In like manner, Damian believed that a soldier in America’s military could fight for the values that the American flag embodied, rather than for the agenda of whatever political figurehead they put in charge of America’s government. Not everyone agreed with the policies of the last president, and not everyone agrees with the policies of this one. When it comes down to it, loving your country means loving the things your country stands for, not loving the people who run it.

Damian’s train of thought was interrupted by a hand grasping his shoulder. He looked up to see the face of his father looking down at him.

“Hello father,” Damian said quietly, placing a hand on top of his. “I heard you were planning on paying a visit sometime soon. How are things in Gotham?”

“Gotham is Gotham, Damian,” Bruce said in a low voice. “It always will be… Alfred says hello, by the way.”

Damian smirked. “Alfred the butler, or Alfred my cat?”

“Both,” Bruce replied with a wink. They laughed for a moment, and Bruce gestured for Damian to sit. The both of them sat down on the couch, and Bruce let out a sigh. “Damian, I wanna talk to you about Garfield.”

Almost immediately, Damian’s expression darkened. “There’s… not much left to say,” he replied. “I let my emotions get the better of me, and my friend got hurt because of it. That’s on my head.”

“You’re right. It absolutely is.” Bruce reached out, putting a hand gently on his son’s arm. “But you can’t let that guilt eat at you.”

“I clearly need to change, Father,” Damian protested calmly. “If something is threatening my friends, it’s my responsibility to stop the threat before it affects someone I care about. I won’t lose again. You never fail, so what excuse do I have to let myself fail?”

Bruce stopped for a moment, looking into his son’s eyes, the same tired blue eyes he saw in the mirror every day. Damian didn’t just want to be a good Robin, he wanted to be a good Batman… he wanted to be his father.

“You think I never lose?” Bruce said, almost whispering. “Son. I lose plenty.”

Damian paused, a look of confusion on his face. “… what do you mean?”

“You’ve read every report on every case I’ve had. Think about it… I let Red Hood fall off that railing all those years ago, and he became the Joker. I didn’t act soon enough to rehabilitate Harvey Dent, and now he’s all but lost to Two-Face. I didn’t make sure Quinn recieved psychiatric help soon enough, and she wasted away with the clown for years…” Bruce paused for a moment to collect his thoughts. “I let Jason die… I let Stephanie die… Damian, I let YOU die.”

“Father that isn’t–”

“Yes, Damian, it is. You think I’ve never failed because the bad guys always end up locked away at the end of the mission. But the truth is, I’ve been dealing with the repercussions of my failures every day since the day I first put on the mask when I was twenty-six. I’ve been dealing with not being able to protect the people I love since I was eight years old. And I’ve let it consume me in the past… after Jason died, I became a danger to everyone around me. It wasn’t until Tim showed up that I realized how out of hand I’d gotten. And when… when you died… you can ask anyone in the League. I lost it.”

Damian looked on as his father spoke. All this time, he’d never considered… but it was true.

“I’m not saying that failure is okay. We strive to do the best we can.” Bruce looked into his son’s eyes again. “What I’m saying is that no matter how hard you try, sometimes you’re going to lose. What’s important is to not allow your losses to consume you.”

They sat in silence, looking to one another for a good four seconds. Slowly, Damian slid closer, and laid his head on his father’s chest. Bruce wrapped his arms around him and held him tight. They didn’t say another word, but volumes could be written in the air between them as they gathered strength from one another.

July 11th, 2017. 11:13 PM.

Damian sat typing away at his computer, chronicling the events of the past week. Thankfully, the past seven days had been rather quiet in Jump City, so Damian was a able to finish up much earlier than usual. Just as he was standing up from his desk to get some much-needed shut-eye, there came a knock upon his bedroom door. Shaking off the tiredness from his eyes, Damian shuffled over to the door as it opened, and there stood Tara Markov on the other side.

“Hey…” Tara waved awkwardly. “Can I come in for a minute?”

Damian smiled and gave a little nod, rubbing his eyes as the girl walked into his room. The door shut behind them, and Damian sat back down in his desk chair, gesturing for Tara to seat herself on his bed, which she did.

“I just, uhh…” Tara scratched her head as she looked for the words. “I never actually said thank you for, y'know… saving me when Gar tried to kill me back in April. If you hadn’t been there when you were, then I probably wouldn’t be here right now.”

“You don’t have to thank me,” Damian assured her. “Especially considering what happened next.”

“Hey,” Tara interjected, “don’t go blaming yourself for what happened to Gar. You did what you had to do to keep us safe. It’s not your fault.”

“It IS my fault, though,” Damian sighed. “But I won’t let it get the better of me. I’m working on dealing with my mistakes. I promise you, I’m gonna keep doing my best to keep you all safe.”

Tara smiled as she got up from where she sat. “Thanks, Dame. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Tara turned to walk out the door, but Damian held up a hand.

“Hold on a second, Terra…” Robin stood up from his chair. “There’s something I need to see.”

Tara seemed to freeze up as Damian approached her. He came up behind her and pulled her hair out off of her neck… and he froze. There, at the base of her neck, sat a small device. If he hadn’t been looking for it, he probably never would have seen it. But there it was… barely distinguishable, but Damian instantly recognized the symbol: a circle, half-orange and half-black, with a slit of white on one side. Damian grit his teeth as he stared down at the symbol of the man who murdered his grandfather…

“… Deathstroke…”

Damian put a firm hand on Tara’s shoulder. He loved Tara, but Deathstroke was one of the most dangerous men on Earth. He needed answers, and he needed them now.

Tara turned slowly to meet Damian’s gaze. What caught Damian off-guard was the tears forming in the corners of her eyes. She threw her arms around his neck and sobbed for a moment.

“Tara, what’s going on…?” Damian put his arms around her waist, unsure of how to respond.

“… Please… Damian, please help…”

#damian wayne #batman #bruce wayne #robin #tara markov #terra #teen titans #dc #dc comics #justice league vs teen titans #jlvtt #dcamu #Teen Titans: Fireworks #dc fanfiction #teen titans fanfiction

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drtanstravels · 4 years

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In my last post, all of our time in Israel was spent in Tel Aviv, looking around Jaffa, wandering around the Sarona shopping district and the beach, and trying to figure out what we could actually do on the Sabbath. Now it was time to do and see some of the things that anyone would want to experience while in Israel. Prepare yourself for a ton of information and a bunch of photos.

Sunday, November 3, 2019 Anna was back at the hospital for her International Retinal Panel course and I had to meet her there at around 11:00am. That wasn’t a problem, I was awake early and was incredibly hungry; on our first night in Tel Aviv I threw up everything I had eaten that day due to drinking far too much pomegranate juice. The following day was Shabbat so I was limited with what I could eat during the day and then when it came to dinner, the staff at the restaurant kept forgetting our food, ultimately serving us over-fried fish scraps that weren’t particularly appetising so that had all left me a little peckish. I gave myself plenty of time to meet up with Anna and I’m not a big fan of hospitals so I found a cafe for a real coffee, not the “very weak coffee” I had received the previous day, and I also grabbed a couple of buns and kicked back in the cafe until Anna and the rest of the Retinal Panel crew were ready. The next stop was the Ein Kerem campus hospital of the Hadassah Medical Center. The Retinal Panel would be taking a tour of the facilities while I just spent some time walking around the gardens that overlooked Jerusalem, just sitting back and admiring the city from a distance while anticipating our tour until everyone was ready to move on from being taken around the hospital. After a couple of hours it was about 3:30pm so we had less than 90 minutes of daylight remaining when we were back on the bus, headed for Jerusalem. One of the organisers of the training seminar, Tamir Weinberg, was a wealth of information on the subject of Judaism and the history of the area, providing more information than we were able to take in, a pattern that would repeat itself with all tour guides throughout this region, and answering any and all questions while we were making our extremely slow bus ride through the almost stationary afternoon traffic. Probably the best question came after he mentioned how the Mount of Olives is the most expensive place for Jews to be buried, due to the belief that it was where Christ ascended to heaven and the location where the ascension at end times will happen once again. Anna curiously asked, “How much are the grapes there?” Tamir was clearly confused, but Anna tried to clarify, pointing out that he said that it was home to the world’s most expensive grapes. Nope, he had been talking about graves, leaving Anna disappointed at not being able to purchase high-end grapes during our visit.

Now, I’ve mentioned several times in this blog that I’m not a religious or even spiritual person, however, I do believe that there was probably some guy called Jesus Christ walking around this part of the world and preaching to people that he was the son of God — You can walk through Central Park in Manhattan on any given day and encounter multiple people who will tell you that they are indeed a direct descendent of the Lord too. But I can’t buy the stories of the virgin birth, the performing of miracles, the resurrection, or even the existence of a God for that matter. On the other hand, I was extremely interested in exploring and seeing for myself this ancient city, the history of which shaping so much of humankind, causing both unity and conflict, as well as influencing so strongly the way billions of people think, speak, behave, and act toward others. The majority of people are probably aware of the basics of Jerusalem, but here is a crash course anyway:

Jerusalem is a city in the Middle East, located on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the oldest cities in the world, and is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Both Israel and the Palestinian Authority claim Jerusalem as their capital, as Israel maintains its primary governmental institutions there and the State of Palestine ultimately foresees it as its seat of power; however, neither claim is widely recognized internationally.

During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, captured and recaptured 44 times, and attacked 52 times. The part of Jerusalem called the City of David shows first signs of settlement in the 4th millennium BCE, in the shape of encampments of nomadic shepherds.

According to the Bible, King David conquered the city from the Jebusites and established it as the capital of the united kingdom of Israel, and his son, King Solomon, commissioned the building of the First Temple. Modern scholars argue that Jews branched out of the Canaanite peoples and culture through the development of a distinct monolatrous — and later monotheistic — religion centered on El/Yahweh, one of the Ancient Canaanite deities. These foundational events, straddling the dawn of the 1st millennium BCE, assumed central symbolic importance for the Jewish people. The sobriquet of holy city was probably attached to Jerusalem in post-exilic times. The holiness of Jerusalem in Christianity, conserved in the Septuagint which Christians adopted as their own authority, was reinforced by the New Testament account of Jesus’s crucifixion there. In Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina. In Islamic tradition, in 610 CE it became the first qibla, the focal point for Muslim prayer, and Muhammad made his Night Journey there ten years later, ascending to heaven where he speaks to God, according to the Quran. As a result, despite having an area of only 0.9 square kilometres (0.35 sq mi), the Old City is home to many sites of seminal religious importance, among them the Temple Mount with its Western Wall, Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Outside the Old City stands the Garden Tomb.

Our time was going to be spent within the walls of the Old City area (highlighted, above) so once inside we had a tour guide ready to show us around, spouting endless knowledge while using a green laser pointer to draw attention to important details, even from a distance. One of the first things I encountered that I simply wasn’t expecting was a man delivering a washing machine on a hand trolley. This town may be ancient, but it’s a little more high-tech than I had anticipated. It was now getting dark and one of the organisers asked the guide to stop talking so we could enter. To begin with we wound our way through buildings and markets stalls, most of which were selling awful tourist paraphernalia, particularly a wealth of terrible t-shirts. I even saw an overly loud American woman wearing a t-shirt which said ‘Jerusalem’, the ‘USA’ in the middle of the city’s name in the pattern of the American flag, although I still fail to see the connection. Whenever we visit foreign countries, for some reason I have a tendency to buy traditional headwear, some examples being that I have a hat that I bought at Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany, a traditional woollen face-mask from Colta, Ecuador, and a fez from Kuşadası, Turkey. Because of this it made perfect sense that I buy a yarmulke while we were in Israel and it turned out that it wouldn’t be a matter I’d have a whole lot of choice in. While walking through the market I saw a store with yarmulkes catering to tourists so I snapped a photo of them, instantly pissing off the store owner, who followed me for a bit and angrily insisted I buy one as sort of fee for the photo. I was planning on getting one at some stage anyway so I figured that this would be the best opportunity, he clearly needed the cash, so I randomly chose a hilariously bad Homer Simpson one and when I asked how much it was, the store owner told me 150 shekels. Somehow this made me a little confused; I had been doing fine at mentally converting in my mind Israeli shekels to Singapore dollars up until that point, but for some reason on this occasion I converted it in the way you would in many South-East Asian countries, multiplying the number by three or four and removing a zero or two. “About six bucks,” I thought to myself. “Thats Okay.” It turned out to be far from okay, because a Singaporean dollar currently equates to about 2.58 shekels so in reality my poor quality Homer Simpson yarmulke that you will see later in this post set me back S$58.00 (US$42.70)! Anyway, here are our first views of Jerusalem:

The Old City of Jerusalem from the carpark

Panoramic shot from outside

Upon entrance

I don’t remember seeing any appliance stores in there

Walking past a food street

I regret not buying that ‘Guns & Moses’ shirt

Walking around another area

Into the market now

Another part of the endless market

The rip-off yarmulke store. I should’ve got the Spongebob one in hindsight

After the market, our first real stop on the tour was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre:

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also called the Church of the Resurrection or Church of the Anastasis by Orthodox Christians, is a church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The church contains, according to traditions dating back to at least the fourth century, the two holiest sites in Christianity: the site where Jesus was crucified, at a place known as Calvary or Golgotha, and Jesus’s empty tomb, where he is said to have been buried and resurrected. The tomb is enclosed by a 19th-century shrine called the Aedicula. The Status Quo, an understanding between religious communities dating to 1757, applies to the site.

Within the church proper are the last four (or, by some definitions, five) stations of the Via Dolorosa, representing the final episodes of the Passion of Jesus. The church has been a major Christian pilgrimage destination since its creation in the fourth century, as the traditional site of the resurrection of Christ, thus its original Greek name, Church of the Anastasis (‘Resurrection’).

Upon entrance of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre you are forced to navigate your way through throngs of people up a stairwell, past some impressive mosaics, until you reach the Calvary, which has traditionally been regarded as the site of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, although this has long been debated, but therefore the home to the Altar of the Crucifixion. The Rock of the Calvary, believed by many to be the exact site of the crucifixion, is directly beneath the altar, but only visible on each side where it is housed in glass cases, and it is possible to touch it from beneath through a hole in the floor under the altar. After seeing the Calvary, we squeezed our way back down the stairs to see the Stone of Anointing (seen in the featured image for this post), allegedly where Christ’s body was prepared for burial. When we got to the stone, people were weeping and throwing themselves on it, others were pouring water over its surface, but the first thing that stood out to me was how small Jesus must’ve been. The stone wouldn’t even be 1.5 metres (5′) long so unless his head or a portion of his lower extremities were hanging over the ends while being embalmed, Jesus Christ couldn’t have been a whole lot taller than Danny DeVito! Our last major stop inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was inside the Rotunda that contains the Aedicule. I was taken to church and Sunday School as a child and taught that Jesus’ body was placed in a cave with a boulder rolled in front of it. I understand that some details can be lost over time and that mistranslations are inevitable, or maybe the priest wasn’t using reliable sources, but Aedicule was no cave. Rather it was an ornate two-room building, the first holding the Angel’s Stone, a fragment of the stone that sealed the tomb, the other containing Christ’s alleged resting place for a few days following his death. If the cave story is factually correct and the Aedicule was built over the site afterward, I figured this would be more common knowledge, or maybe it’s just a result of my own ignorance of the topic. Either way, It was all impressive to see:

Outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Inside, looking toward the Stone of the Anointing

Upstairs in the Calvary

The ceiling is beautiful

Looking toward the Altar of the Crucifxion

A mosaic of Christ being crucified

The Altar of the Crucifixion from the side

Some priests doing their thing at the altar

The Rock of Calvary

Another mosaic, this time of Jesus’ body being taken down from the cross

A mosaic near the Stone of Anointing of Christ’s body being prepared for burial

The Stone of Anointing from a distance

People were just throwing themselves at it

Lighting candles

The Aedicule

The Dome of the Anastasis above the aedicule

The side of the Aedicule

After the Church of the Holy Sepulchre we walked to another market area that mainly sold food and spices to stop off for some traditional cheesy snacks. I have no idea what we ate, but it was damn tasty. Next we were taken through another indoor area with broken columns that was once a marketplace, now resplendent with a mural of how it used to look back in the day. Once we had exited, we walked past a synagogue that overlooked the Mount of Olives and were soon at the Western Wall, more commonly referred to as the Wailing Wall, although that is considered a derogatory term:

The Western Wall, Wailing Wall, or Kotel is an ancient limestone wall in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is a relatively small segment of a far longer ancient retaining wall, known also in its entirety as the “Western Wall”. The wall was originally erected as part of the expansion of the Second Jewish Temple begun by Herod the Great, which resulted in the encasement of the natural, steep hill known to Jews and Christians as the Temple Mount, in a large rectangular structure topped by a huge flat platform, thus creating more space for the Temple itself and its auxiliary buildings. For Muslims, it is traditionally the site where the Islamic Prophet Muhammad tied his winged steed, al-Buraq, on his Isra and Mi’raj to Jerusalem before ascending to paradise, and constitutes the Western border of al-Haram al-Sharif.

The term Western Wall and its variations are mostly used in a narrow sense for the section traditionally used by Jews for prayer; it has also been called the “Wailing Wall”, referring to the practice of Jews weeping at the site over the destruction of the Temples. The term “Wailing Wall” is not used by Jews, and increasingly not by many others who consider it derogatory.

There is a much publicised practice of placing slips of paper containing written prayers into the crevices of the Wall. The earliest account of this practice is attributed to Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar, (d. 1743). More than a million notes are placed each year and the opportunity to e-mail notes is offered by a number of organisations. It has become customary for visiting dignitaries to place notes too.

The wall has separate prayer areas for men and women, both of which have large bird’s nests jutting out, and I am unsure if this is common or not, but people praying on the men’s side were sparsely spaced out when compared to the women’s side, which would’ve been at least 20 metres (65′) deep with women waiting to pray. We’ve been attempting to sell our apartment in Singapore in order to buy a larger one with very little success so Anna wrote “Sell our house” on a piece of paper she tore off an old brochure and went down to the wall to place it in a crack while I stayed upstairs to take some photos and video. I’m unsure if it was intentional, but the layout of barriers and scaffolding makes it almost impossible to get decent access to take photos of the women’s portion of the wall.

Spices in the market

About to have a snack

Tasty!

Walking through the food market

Now where the ancient market once stood

One of several mosaics that line the walls

A painting of how the market once looked. Apparently a common tourist thing to do is stand on that pillar for a photo so it looks as if you are in the market

The synagog

Overlooking the Mount of Olives

The men’s prayer section of the Western Wall

Those aren’t plants sticking out of the wall, they’re enormous bird’s nests

Getting a little closer

You can see all of the prayers in the cracks of the wall

Even women in Israel have to do compulsory national service

Anna and myself near the wall

The photos only give a rough idea of the Western Wall so I took a couple of short videos, the first from a distance to show the size and the second one closer to see the actions of those praying:

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We left the Old city at around 8:30pm and went to a nearby restaurant where the organisers had made a reservation and some great food was passed around with free flow wine. I donned my $60 yarmulke, attached it to my head with Anna’s hair-clip, and this led to an interesting question — You see a lot of jews keep their yarmulkes in place with hairpins, but how do bald men do it? A suction cup? Glue, tape, or any other adhesive? Some sort of natural vacuum with the skull? I never got an exact answer, but one of the local doctors made the motion of just licking it and slapping it on his crown. We all had a great time at dinner and the next item on the agenda was to visit a decent drinking spot in a nearby market. As we entered we came to a place where some locals, as well as a couple of tourists, were just sitting around with beers, some smoking a shisha, just kicking back and listening to music. Someone thought it would be a brilliant idea just to stop off for some shots along the way, but we never ended up moving on. Initially, everyone was taking a while so I bought a beer, figuring I could just chug it when we had to leave, but then the music got cranked, everyone started dancing, and others began to get drinks as well. Next thing I knew, what was usually a small hangout in a market in Jerusalem had been turned into a party, Anna’s scarf being used for a limbo competition by some nearby Israeli guys that decided to join in. Two mind-blown Belgian tourists that were sitting nearby with a shisha asked at one point what had just happened. I had to explain to them that a bunch of eye surgeons from around the world that had barely known each other for a day or two had decided to hit the town and accidentally ended up taking over the place! I don’t dance so I at one stage got talking to the ambassador for Equatorial Guinea, his wife, and their older Israeli host who had only a few minutes prior been sitting around having a quiet drink. Anna was getting a bit thirsty so she kept coming over to have a sip out of my beer so I just eventually bought her one to make things easier, which she almost immediately spilt on me. This must’ve given the Israeli man, who had to be in his mid-60s, an idea. Anna soon came over and he introduced himself, leading to a conversation between the two of them that, although not verbatim, went very closely along the lines of this:

Older Israeli Man: “Is this your first time in Israel?” Anna: “Yes, and I love it here!” Older Israeli Man: “Where are you staying?” Anna: “In Tel Aviv.” Older Israeli Man: (Attempting to hand Anna his phone number) “Well, next time you’re in Israel I can be your private tour guide. Who are you here with?” Anna: (Putting an arm around me) “Oh, my husband.” Older Israeli Man: “Oh… Do you have a sister?” Anna: “No, just three brothers.” Older Israeli Man: “Oh, sorry…”

We both immediately cracked up laughing at how absurd it had been that a possible retiree had just assumed that Anna was some party girl who flirts with guys by randomly walking up and taking sips from their drinks and then resorted to asking if she had a sister when he found out she wasn’t available. It was a brilliant night and a sleepy bus ride back when we left at around midnight to make the one-hour trek back to our hotel.

Leaving the Old City

The view inside the restaurant from our upper-level tables

My terrible $60 Homer Simpson yarmulke on my greasy hair

Eating and drinking

Entering the market

We wouldn’t make it past there

Things getting loud

We needed to cover up to be in Jerusalem, but this was the only long skirt Anna had, making her look like a five-year-old who dressed herself for school and wanted to go as a ballerina

Monday, November 4, 2019 We were leaving for Singapore that day, but that’s not the reason we were up early. Instead, we were doing a tour of Masada and then going out to float around in the Dead Sea and we had to be in the hotel lobby at 7:20am for the bus. As usual we got stuck in traffic on the way, there were some really annoying people in our tour group, and the seats on the bus weren’t made for people my size so my back got quite painful over the course of the drive. One thing I wasn’t aware of was that we would be driving through Palestine on this particular day, however, we wouldn’t need passports, because nobody can really give a clear answer on what constitutes Palestine:

Boundaries of the Roman province Syria Palaestina, where dashed green line shows the boundary between Byzantine Palaestina Prima and Palaestina Secunda, as well as Palaestina Salutaris Borders of Mandatory Palestine Borders of the Palestinian territories (West Bank and Gaza Strip) which are claimed by the State of Palestine as its borders

Palestine is a geographic region in Western Asia usually considered to include Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and in some definitions, parts of western Jordan.

Situated at a strategic location between Egypt, Syria and Arabia, and the birthplace of Judaism and Christianity, the region has a long and tumultuous history as a crossroads for religion, culture, commerce, and politics. The region has been controlled by numerous peoples, including Ancient Egyptians, Canaanites, Israelites and Judeans, Assyrians, Babylonians, Achaemenids, ancient Greeks, the Jewish Hasmonean Kingdom, Romans, Parthians, Sasanians, Byzantines, the Arab Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid and Fatimid caliphates, Crusaders, Ayyubids, Mamluks, Mongols, Ottomans, the British, and modern Israelis, Jordanians, Egyptians and Palestinians.

The boundaries of the region have changed throughout history. Today, the region comprises the State of Israel and the Palestinian territories in which the State of Palestine was declared.

Yeah, I don’t really get it and this map (above), with the different borders colour-coded, doesn’t offer a whole lot of help, either. In fact, I didn’t even realise we had been in Palestine until I saw the location on some of the photos I had taken in the middle of nowhere while we were on the bus. Whenever you hear about Palestine on the news it’s never anything good, because all of that information generally revolves around the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, but apparently we were there and didn’t even know it! Our trip took quite a while, but our driver, who was also our tour guide, was funny as hell and we ultimately made it to Masada in the end. The only problem was that not only was this another situation where there was simply too much information to take in, but he also spoke in a very monotone voice so you just kind of tuned out after a while. Never fear, here are the basics about Masada:

Masada is an ancient fortification in the Southern District of Israel situated on top of an isolated rock plateau, akin to a mesa. It is located on the eastern edge of the Judaean Desert, overlooking the Dead Sea 20 km (12 mi) east of Arad.

Herod the Great built two palaces for himself on the mountain and fortified Masada between 37 and 31 BCE.

According to Josephus, the siege of Masada by Roman troops from 73 to 74 CE, at the end of the First Jewish–Roman War, ended in the mass suicide of the 960 Sicarii rebels who were hiding there.

There are two options for hiking to Masada, which is about 300m (980′) in elevation, but it is quite long and steep and it can get very hot there so we opted for the two-minute cable car ride to the top. Out one side of the car you could see the desert and the Dead Sea, out the other side, this:

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Once at the summit we were taken on a rather lengthy tour beneath the desert sun and this is a sampling of what we saw of Masada, there are only descriptions for the parts I know or could find information about:

Waiting for the cable car

Looking over the Dead Sea into Jordan

Here comes our cable car

Some crazy people hike this!

Approaching the fort

A mosaic floor

A “caldarium” (hot room) in the Roman-style public bath

A better look at the caldarium

Looking into the Synagogue

Finally some shade!

Roman siege camp F and a section of the Roman circumvallation wall

Panoramic shot of the Dead Sea

Not a whole lot out there…

Token Selfie

Another mosaic floor

Part of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Anna and myself

Once we had finished looking around Masada we were back in the bus to go to the Ein Gedi region by the Dead Sea. By this time the pain in my back was unbearable so I was hoping that floating on water would be able to provide some relief, but before we could go in, we went to get lunch. The restaurant we were taken to was connected to a gift shop, a place I’d need later, but first we had to eat and despite having a sign saying something to the extent of “Best Food at 430m Below Sea Level,” it was shit! Perhaps it was because it was the only food option there and when there is no other, you become the best by default. It was like going into a school canteen; there was a bain marie section with pre-cooked food, you could choose one meat, two vegetables, and one carbohydrate, essentially just a choice of pasta or rice, and an all-you-can-eat salad bar. We had our crappy lunch and then it was to the gift shop. Anna wanted to buy some presents for people, things such as Dead Sea salt and body lotions, and I needed to buy some shorts, because I had forgotten to pack anything for swimming in Israel. The choices of patterns were horrendous and although I bought an XL, they were still quite small. Anyway, I donned my hideous, newly acquired swimming attire and it was time to float around in the Dead Sea:

The Dead Sea is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west. It lies in the Jordan Rift Valley, and its main tributary is the Jordan River.

Its surface and shores are 430.5 metres (1,412 ft) below sea level, Earth’s lowest elevation on land. It is 304 m (997 ft) deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world. With a salinity of 342 g/kg, or 34.2% (in 2011), it is one of the world’s saltiest bodies of water – 9.6 times as salty as the ocean – and has a density of 1.24 kg/litre, which makes swimming similar to floating. This salinity makes for a harsh environment in which plants and animals cannot flourish, hence its name. The Dead Sea’s main, northern basin is 50 kilometres (31 mi) long and 15 kilometres (9 mi) wide at its widest point.

The Dead Sea has attracted visitors from around the Mediterranean Basin for thousands of years. It was one of the world’s first health resorts (for Herod the Great), and it has been the supplier of a wide variety of products, from asphalt for Egyptian mummification to potash for fertilisers.

We were given advice on what we should and shouldn’t do when in the body of water, the main points being not to roll onto your belly, because your feet will rise and increase the possibility of drowning, as well as avoiding getting the water into our nose, mouth, or ears. The smell of sulphur hung thick in the air as we waited for a tractor to take us to the shore and once there we saw people covered in mud, just laying in the sun, while others floated on their backs. Getting into the water was difficult, because the crystallised salt along the shore and on the seabed made it similar to walking across a field of Legos in order to enter, but once in it was the most peaceful I think I have ever felt, besides the fact that any cuts and scratches initially stung like you wouldn’t believe. We were with one of Anna’s Thai cohorts from the Retina Panel as well so they both also decided to get all muddy, but I was content just floating:

I said the shorts were ugly… and small!

We laughed when we first saw her

But then we realised everyone was doing it

I don’t mind the beach too much when it’s neither sandy nor crowded

Salt along the shoreline

Just floating around

Not a care in the world

Anna joining me

It gets very painful walking over this

It also gets a bit warm, too

Anna and her colleague, all muddy

She was kind of proud of being this dirty

I also got Anna to take a video of us so you can see how buoyant you become, but you’ll have to deal with random zooming, because she was still trying to figure out how to use the video function for the camera on my new phone:

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When we were out of the sea I showered, but I bite my nails and it occured to me that it was going to take several more showers for my fingers to stop tasting so extremely salty. I also realised two other things:

I had completely forgotten to bring a change of underwear — I had prepared a pair and put them in a bag, I just didn’t bring said bag.

If I hadn’t got changed so quickly in the first place and had examined my new shorts a little closer upon purchase, this wouldn’t have even been an issue, as they had built-in underwear.

My boys need a home, but that wasn’t going to be the case on the bus ride back to the hotel. Add to this the increasingly worse lower-back pain from the indented curve in the small bus seats and it wasn’t a pleasant journey back, but at least my skin felt super soft. To further compel our problems, Anna had done some research before we came to Israel, reading that security out of the country can be tough, and had somehow come to the conclusion that we needed to be at the airport four hours before our 9:30pm flight back to Singapore. The problem with this approach was that we had left the Dead Sea at 4:30pm and, factoring in the distance we had to travel, as well as the traffic we had to make our way through, it was getting close to 7:00pm by the time we were back, Anna completely on edge. Once we arrived at the hotel I knew exactly where my spare underwear was so I had the intention of dashing into the bathroom to give myself a feeling of security again, but Anna deemed it simply not an option, due to the potential for the entire process to waste around 30 valuable seconds. Our taxi got us to the airport with about two hours to spare and there were a few extra questions asked, such as when the guy at immigration asked our connection. “Oh, we’re flying to Istanbul, have a 90-minute layover, and then we continue on to Singapore,” was our reply. “No, I mean between the two of you.” We told him we were married, then he still wanted me to confirm I was Anna’s husband, moving on to ask me the origins of my surname, but overall it wasn’t as difficult as we had expected. The true terror, however, struck when I reached the metal detector. I took my wallet, phone, and hat, put them and my bag in the tray and walked toward the metal detector. “Are you wearing a belt?” the operator asked, not a question I was hoping to hear. I took my belt off, put it in the container with my other items, held onto my shorts, and waddled over to the detector. Once through I still had to stand with my arms outstretched for the frisk and scan, but fortunately my shorts didn’t slip down to a level that could get me arrested. Security wasn’t the nightmare Anna had anticipated so we had plenty of time to go up to the lounge, put on some undies, and have a bite to eat before our flight.

Israel was definitely a surprise; we had heard great things about Tel Aviv and how it was a party city so seeing that for ourselves was fun. I already knew that there was nothing besides physically witnessing a 100 percent indisputable act of divine intervention that could make me a believer in any form of religion, but it was still incredible to visit those holy sites in Jerusalem, and as you can probably guess, floating in the Dead Sea is a really weird, but cool feeling.

Also, yet again something terrible happened in Israel as soon as we left, a trend that is really beginning to get a little disturbing, although not surprising in this part of the world.

Exploring Jerusalem and Masada, as well as floating in the Dead Sea In my last post, all of our time in Israel was spent in Tel Aviv, looking around Jaffa, wandering around the Sarona shopping district and the beach, and trying to figure out what we could actually do on the Sabbath.

#Church of the Holy Sepulchre #Dead Sea #Jerusalem #Masada #Wailing Wall #Western Wall

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