#i wouldn't call it weird exactly but i'm at an interesting place in my career as an artist bc i feel as if i should have found a specialty | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

belsasim · 2 years

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Rayne's first reaction on the strange e-mail was to toss it in the virtual bin and move on. But he was intrigued. Who was monitoring his internet searches? Was this a very weird prank by Sarah? She surely had the skills to do something like this, but pranks weren't her style. His mother or his other housemates wouldn't do this either. Maybe it was an elaborate scheme of a stalker fan? The more Rayne thought about, the more curious he found the whole thing.

So he decided to go to meet 'the agent' at NerdBrews, they had good coffee anyway. Something he rarely treated himself to.

He arrived half an hour early, hoping he could stake out the place and find out who sent the mail and was pulling this strange prank. He felt his blood rushing with excitement, like just before an important match, but not exactly the same.

Not seeing anything out of the ordinary, Rayne ordered an espresso and sat down at on of the tables. At 5pm, no one approached him. Rayne had finished his coffee and pondered what to do next. Maybe it was a dumb prank after all. He pulled his phone out of his pocket to look at the e-mail once again, vaguely expecting a new mail with laughing emoji confirming he had fallen for the prank.

No new mail. But concentrating on his phone, he didn't notice someone had sat down at his table.

Tall Dark Stranger: "It's not a prank, Mr. Dreamer."

Rayne (so startled he almost dropped his phone): "WTF!" (looking at the sporty , slightly older than him and, frankly, quite handsome man sitting at his table. Strangely, he felt like he had seen him before, but he could not place him at all) "Who are you?"

Tall Dark Stranger: "I'm Agent Davies, Mr. Dreamer. Nice to meet you in person. We've been following your career for a while now. You have stayed with The Other Sports Team for much longer than we had anticipated."

Rayne (slightly disappointed): "Oh, you're just another sports agent. I'm sorry, I haven't heard of the S.I.M.S. sports team. I'm not interested in the same job at another team." (after a short pause) And I'm going to report you for unauthorised monitoring of my computer and internet usage."

Agent Davies (slightly squeezing his eyes, making Rayne suddenly feel a little bit intimidated): "Oh Mr. Dreamer, I am not a sports agent. We were quite surprised when you upped and moved to Windenburg to spend your days chasing a ball." (Rayne frowned at these words, was he being insulted now?) "You performed quite well at Foxbury, both in the classrooms as in... other rooms."

Rayne's blood started to boil, was he being roasted for some hidden camera tv show or what? This wasn't funny anymore. "Enough," he said calmly, "whatever this is, I'm done. I wish you the best, but don't contact me anymore and don't come near my family or my housemates." He moved to stand up and walk away. Agent Davies smiled and took his badge out of the pocket of his hoodie. "S.I.M.S. is the government's intelligence agency, Mr. Dreamer, and I want you to join my team as an analyst."

Rayne frowned, but stayed seated. Agent Davies's badge did look legit and seeing him smile, he suddenly remembered where he had seen this man before. He was a student a few years older at Foxbury. They never really talked and he wasn't even sure he knew his name. "Logan," Agent Davies spoke as if he could read Rayne's mind. "Oh, those Foxbury days..."

Logan and Rayne spent some time reminiscing their time at Foxbury and to his surprise, Rayne actually got along with Logan really well. Logan gave more information about S.I.M.S. (as much as he was authorised to share to non-employees) and the job he was offering Rayne. On his way home, Rayne called his trainer to announce he was going to leave the team. When he got home, he took his surprised girlfriend in an embrace, kissed her with a big smile and said: "I'm Dreamer, Rayne Dreamer, and I've got a new job."

---

NerdBrews Coffee & Game by Grimsae on the Gallery

Logan is one of my precious sims born in-game in another save file, and I felt he is perfect for being Rayne's colleague and mentor in the secret agent career :-)

#simblr #ts4 #ts4 legacy challenge #forgotten realms legacy #frl gen3 #get together #windenburg #nerdbrews #rayne dreamer #logan davies #new job #working on those generation goals

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theemperorsfeather · 2 years

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Thinking about how I stopped being interested in going outside and spending time with trees and shrubs and plants and bugs and stuff some months ago, and actually felt kind of repelled by the idea, and how this feels more like a connection has been cut rather than me, say, finding a new special interest and spending all my time on that because it's new and shiny. (Or maybe the connection's not cut, they're just not accepting or placing calls at this time.)

And how on one of my last trips through the middle of the state, I stopped at a place with some amazing geology and had some intense feelings at one spot, the kind of mystical whomp that if it doesn't drop you to your knees in tears, you want to, and what was up with that, IDK, it was not clear (but it also wasn't the first or even 10th time I've had some big feelings around some of the incredible exposed geology in the region)

And how over the last couple years there's been a bunch of things all pointing more and more towards "rock" and "stone" and then suddenly there's Mr. Subterranean with various and sundry absolutely unquestionable rock associations of some kind - and also some deeply weird shit I absolutely don't understand.

And how shortly before I quit the garden center job 3 years ago I lost an earring I'd been wearing for ~15 years that had "land" associations; of course at the time I took it only as an omen about the specific job I was in, but why wouldn't it have multiple levels of meaning

And what Loki told me not long after I started that short-lived landscaping job (that my career with that kind of stuff was over, score a 2nd meaning for my lost earring)

And how very fucking long I have been going towards land work, been pulled to it, felt wretched and forsaken when I lived in the wrong place, and anyway this would hardly be the first or even 2nd time I've been wrong about what direction I'm going but I am nonetheless going to complain and probably sulk a bit about having something fundamental about my life changed again.

"Maybe the rock stuff is temporary" - a ha ha, no; Mr. S told me some things that indicate that he, at least, is not. (And by "indicate" what I really mean is it could hardly have been more clear but I feel like saying anything is permanent and/or clear is just begging to be proven wrong, so.)

And given how this fits into the bigger pattern of magical work in my life - well. I thought the rock stuff was going to be another tool/bunch of knowledge/work related to the land, but not, like, possibly maybe I'm beginning to think it's bigger and more important than what I've cared about for fucking decades and

And then - yeah, here's another god damn thing - some of the plant powers told me way back in garden center days that I had basically lived up to the agreements I had with them and I was done - which was a surprise since I hadn't realized my term of service would be so short-lived.

(As an aside I will never again be able to use *angrily kicks a rock* again)

I'm not exactly upset, more just uhh resigned with a little bit of sad confusion sauce.

#ugh #blah #:|#angst and woe #spiritual bullshit #pluto leaves capricorn WHEN #i'd say i feel so very stupid to be so slow on the uptake but in fairness the change HAS been rather gradual #i just didn't want to look at some of it too closely :\#ironic that some damn deity with ROCK associations is the one i don't want to ask about some fucking stability for once in my damned life #had my world taken out from under me too many times at this point #besides um well see there's a thing volcanoes just. do. so.

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onebangtanstan · 4 years

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Power Style - Chapter Twelve : The group

I am in shock. Everyone is turning to me, following his gaze. They're starting to understand what is going on.

"KIM NAMJOON ARE YOU SERIOUS???" I'm yelling.

Yoongi tries to catch me as I start walking angrily towards Namjoon. As I'm arriving near him, I extend my arm and point my finger at him.

"You and me. Outside. Now."

He follows me out, and we're now facing each other once again. This is starting to become a habit. The cold doesn't even bother me at this point, my body is so hot from the rage.

I put a distance between us to be able to fully look at him while I spit my anger. He's standing as if nothing was wrong, with his hands still in his pockets, smirking at me.

I start scolding him.

"How could you do this?! You know how photoshoots work. And you just randomly decide to change your whole aesthetic?! As if it couldn't have waited until tomorrow?!" I am telling him off as if we was my child. I barely see the boys come out, I am too focused on him. "This is my job, and probably the biggest account I've ever done, and the only thing you seem interested in is how to fuck it up for me! What the fuck did I ever do to you?!" I can't see anything but his smirk at this point, which only enrages me more. I can't stop. "You are the most arrogant, annoying, disrespectful, ungrateful-" I vaguely hear someone call out my name "-cockiest piece of-"

"GINA!" I finally turn around to the sound of Jin calling me. He's standing right beside me. "Don't give into him." He whispers, looking deep into my eyes. He's right. I start to realize what I've just done.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. No. What did I just do?" Jin takes me in his arms, which instantly heats me up. I didn't realize it but my body is numb from the cold.

"Breathe, Gina, breathe." Tae and Kook are beside us now too.

"Dude, even I wouldn't have went that far, and that's saying something." I hear Jimin talking to Namjoon.

Hobi is on the phone and soon hands his phone to Namjoon. Someone is obviously on the line, because I immediately hear a voice coming out of the device. Given the look on his face, he's probably being told off by someone above him, and he doesn't seem happy about it.

"Are you okay?" Hobi asks, arriving near our little crowd. "Do you need anything?"

I think of something. Something I haven't done in a very long time. But it's the only thing I can think of right now.

"Um.. I don't know.. I think I.." Why am I embarrassed? "To be honest I thinks I need a cigarette." I can tell that they weren't expecting this, but I see no judgement on their faces.

"Don't move." says Kook before running off to the parking lot.

He's back a few seconds later with a packet of cigarettes and a lighter.

"They're all yours. My drivers treat." I smile at him.

"Could I have some time alone guys?" They all nod, Jin takes me in his arms once again and proceeds to give me his coat.

As they walk back inside, I start looking for a place where I can sit down. Once that's done, I hold the packet in my hand and stare at it for a long time. Fuck it. I take one out and light it up, feeling the nicotine spread to my body.

I sit there and smoke my cigarette while staring ahead of me, contemplating what I just did. I hope this doesn't cost me the account, or even my job. I royally fucked up on this one, I never should have snapped that way at him. He's my fucking client.

I hear footsteps coming towards me, making my eyes focus again. I see Namjoon walking towards me.

"Please, just go." I tell him.

"I just want a light." What? He smokes? "Don't make that face, it's one cigarette here and there. Plus, I don't owe you anything. Give me the lighter."

"You do owe me this campaign." I start. "As for the rest, I agree. But it's not an excuse to treat my like shit."

"Please may I have your lighter?" He says ironically.

I simply lift my eyes up, handing him it. I can't get mad again.

I look up at him while he takes his first puff. Ok, he's hot. The hair colour really suits him, but it doesn't excuse the fact that he did it in the middle of shooting a campaign.

"Gina," The tone he's using startles me. I've never heard him talk to me like that, calmly, no anger in his voice. "I was just on the phone with my boss. I would like to apologize for what I did. I know it could have compromised all the work you've done." Sounds like a fake apology, but ok I'll take it.

"Look, Namjoon. We don't have to like each other. It's what I told you yesterday. But we are going to have to find a way to work together. We'll be seeing each other everyday for the next 6 months or so, and I can't be in this state of mind every time we see each other. And I most certainly can't fuck this account up, if I didn't already, it would jeopardize my entire career."

"Don't worry about that, the blame is on me." This feels weird. It's the first time we're talking without fighting. "As for work, I agree. What if we don't talk unless it's about Fila and the promotion? Would that work out?"

"Yeah I guess. We don't have a reason to talk other than that so yes." Wow. That was mature of him. "But it doesn't fix your hair problem."

"I'm an ass, I'm not stupid. I had a wig made exactly like how my hair looked yesterday."

That fucker. So it really was just to piss me off. He wanted to make a grand entrance, and he wanted that reaction of me. I swear t- Stop. Don't start again.

I simply stand up, finish my second cigarette -that I lit up unconsciously- and head back inside.

The atmosphere is tense when I walk in, and all heads turn to me. I sense a general relief when they see that I have calmed down.

"All right guys, we're shooting today. We've lost enough time, so let's speed everything up to finish in time." I direct to my staff.

The boys are almost done with makeup, while Namjoon is heading towards them, his wig in his hand.

"You are such an asshole." Jimin snarks

30 minutes go by, and we are all set to go. We start shooting, but we can still sense the tension in all of their faces.

"Guys, it's not working." I let them know. "Let's take a 15 minutes brake, have a coffee, some food, some air, I don't know, but let's all come back with a good energy, okay?"

Everyone scatters around the room. I sit down on my chair and just stare vaguely at the set up. A cup of coffee appears in my vision. The hand holding it is attached to Jin. He's standing beside me, Yoongi, Hoseok, Tae and Kook around him.

"Thank you" I smile at him as I grab the cup.

"What do you need Gina? We'll do anything to make your life easier." Jin is now kneeling down beside me.

I think for a bit but know exactly what has to be done. "Could you make us laugh?"

"WorldWide Handsome, at your service, you know?" I giggle. I knew this could lift my mood.

For the rest of the brake, I just watch Jin head over to each crew member, asking them if they know BTS. Kook is back to being the carefree boy he usually is, Tae and Hobi are having a dance battle with Yoongi as a judge.

From the side of my eye I can Jimin and Namjoon near the toilet, but don't pay too much attention to them. I focus on the others.

"All right people, let's get back into it!" Everyone takes their places, and we can already feel the mood has lifted up. Jin keeps telling jokes the whole time we shoot, making everyone relax as time goes by.

We take all the pictures we need before lunch. The company has ordered a bunch of food for us, and while we're waiting for it to arrive, I have a look at this mornings' shots. They are very good. I can see each of their personalities in them, but also their complicity. I stare at one particular pictures of them, and I think it will be the main visual for the campaign. I guess Jin had just made a joke, making Jungkook and himself laugh. The others all have a little smile on their faces. They look really cute.

"Hey, they're good looking men." Jin is looking over my shoulder. He points at himself. "Especially this guy."

"He's Jin from BTS, do you know them?" I smile at the sound of his laugh "He's known as WorldWide Handsome."

"I can see why." He answers.

The food finally arrives, and we all dig in. Well, almost all of us. I see Jimin roaming near the buffet, trying to decide what to go for. He ends up putting his plate back down and grabbing a apple and a bottle of water.

We finish eating and start cleaning up behind ourselves. I notice the apple on the table, half-eaten, and no Jimin. This is fucked up. He looks great, why does he do that to himself? I shouldn't say that, I know why he does that. Part of the reason I became an addict in the first place was because I thought I was fat. Nope, not going to think about that. I quickly clear my mind and focus on the filming part we have to do this afternoon.

The boys get changed while we arrange the set for the filming. I gather everyone around, staff and band, to give my directions.

"Okay everyone, we don't have much time to do this, and we will most likely have to do only one take per person. I'm gonna need everyone to put out their best work in order to make everyone else's lives easier. Do we all know what we have to do? Okay perfect, we can do this guys!"

Everyone rushes to their place, while I fill the boys in on what I'm going to need from them. They take place in front of the camera.

"Are we all ready? Aaand Action!"

We film all afternoon. Everything goes smoothly and I feel very relieved knowing we'll be done today. The only thing left will be the editing, and we'll be spending all weekend on that.

"We have everything we need guys! Thanks so much everyone, it's wrap!" I start clapping at my team, and everyone tags along.

I then head to the band.

"Thank you, you were brilliant today." Well almost. Thanks Namjoon. "I'll keep you updated during the weekend on how the editing is going. You can go now, thanks again."

As they head back to the dressing room, I start helping my team pack everything up. We have to empty the whole place since we won't be needing it anymore. I notice Namjoon and Jimin leave, but to my surprise, the others are helping out.

"Hey, no you don't have to do that."

"We said we wanted to make your life easier. This helps you all leave sooner." Jin says, as he picks up a cable.

"Yeah, and you and I have plans, so I'm staying until you're done. Might as well help out." Hobi tells me.

"Thank you guys, I really appreciate it."

We all get back to cleaning up, and we're done in about 30 minutes.

The crew leaves one by one with their respective equipment, but I have to stay until everyone is gone.

Jin comes up to me. "I have to go, but call me tonight?" He's holding my face in his hands. I nod and smile back at him, he answers with a kiss on my forehead. Yoongi leaves with him, and simply waves goodbye at me from afar.

Tae and Kook both give me a hug goodbye not long after Jin left. "Dinner at mine on Monday? To celebrate the launch." Tae asks.

"Absolutely!" I tell him.

Everyone is gone now, expect for Hobi who is just sitting on the floor. "Are we good to go?"

I check one last time if everything is in order, grab my stuff, and head out the door. I lock it behind me and turn to him, a smile on my face. "Let's go."

#bts #btsfanfic #fanfic #kpop #seoul #jin #tae #jin x oc #rm #rm x oc #hobi #hobi x oc #yoongi

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rndyounghowze · 4 years

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A-Z Productions in Quit While You're Ahead

Two seniors have made a dangerous pact on the “last weekend of the best four years of their lives”. Can their friend talk them out of it?

By Ricky and Dana Young-Howze

Cincinnati Fringe Festival

One of the great parts about doing a Fringe is that you get to see some very weird plays that you would never get to see anywhere else. You also get to see a lot of new material that is very raw or experimental. Pieces like these wouldn't really get such a production in a big regional theater so self producing them at a Fringe is the best way to get them in front of an audience that is so adventurous they would literally pay to watch just about anything sight unseen.

And that's how Dana and I walked into the A-Z Productions performance of “Quit While You're Ahead” written by Alexx Rouse and directed by Brandon Leatherland. It follows Jason (played by Trevor Browning), Janie (played by Rachel Kazee), and Chad (played by Nick Kiley). While drinking and celebrating before high school graduation Jason and Janie let Chad in on their plans to kill themselves during the summer. In their minds (and on the charts they've meticulously prepared) they've peaked and they'd rather cash in their chips and go than deal with the rest of their lives. Strangely enough the way it was presented Dana and I were kinda down for that premise. It is a fringe after all. But then after a very passionate speech Chad talks Jason out of going through with it. They hug and the show's over.

Ummm….

Instead of going over the acting, directing or other notes we had we want to talk straight to Rouse as writers on this one. Hi Alexx! Because this is a virtual Fringe I'll never get the pleasure of sharing a drink with you after the show. For what I'm about to say pretend that we're at a coffee shop and I'm talking to you like I'd chat with any of my fellow playwrights after a performance. I want to start with the fact that you're a brilliant playwright and I want you to have a very long career. I knew that you knew how to structure a drama from the first ten minutes of the show. And you did something that most playwrights fail at: you started from a really authentic place. To quote Dana “to put on a cap and gown is to have an existential crisis”. We've all been there before and that's a real amazing place to start a play. We also both loved that we were seeing a play about the process of deciding to commit suicide and not just the aftermath. I also really love plays that distort rituals and tear down archetypes. If you were ever going to find two people down for a play that started out like it did then that was us. You could have gone so many ways from that beginning and we would have been right there along for the ride.

However I don't know if the play you wrote is the play going on in the audience’s head. I most assuredly don't think that this young man is not going to kill himself. In my head as an audience member if a young man has made charts and booked airline tickets and made such a concrete plan this is a time for 911 calls and talks with guidance counselors not passionate speeches from our friends. As a depressive Dana was doing hotel and flight refund math in her head and told me “nope he's still going through with it”.

I guess we don't know what your intentions for the show were. Was this a rich satire about people who feel they’ve peaked at high school and we just didn't have the benefit of a live audience to let us know how to laugh or was this a motivational play trying to convince someone not to kill themselves? Frankly we didn't know whether to laugh or cry and as a playwright it is your job to make sure we always know that. Dana felt personally punched by this show. She's urged me to put the suicide hotline number on this post because this show might need a trigger warning. I at least also want to provide a link to a place people can go to if they have unanswered questions after watching the show. You really don't want your audience to be in a place where they feel they have to warn people about your show. A playwright has a very short time to establish a trust with the audience. With this trust we know that we're going to watch a good show and everyone is going to come out of it unscathed. We didn't feel that trust watching this show. For the first time in a long time I caught myself checking how much time was left in the performance. I wanted it to be over. You really don't want that.

I feel that this was a wonderful play that just needs a bit more development before it's ready to be seen again. And that's exactly what Fringe is about: getting out there and trying untested material. I hope everyone who reads this goes and sees the show in enough time to join the TalkBack at 8:00 ET to give their feedback. It would be really great to see all the different perspectives people had on a show like this.

Head over to the Fringe Website and get your passes now for this and other shows. We hope to also see you at the live events too. If this is how we start out it's going to be an interesting two weeks!

And I wasn't kidding. Please call 1-800-273-8255 if you or someone else you know is contemplating suicide. Getting them help is the only way.

#nj #theatre #southjersey #newjersey #njtravels #theatrelives #Alexx Rouse #AZproductions #cincyfringe #fringefestival

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