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aion-rsa · 3 years

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The Best Korean Dramas on Netflix to Watch Right Now

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South Korea is one of the world’s biggest exporters of popular culture. From K-pop to K-dramas, Parasite to BTS, the East Asian country knows how to reach an international audience. Korean TV, especially K-dramas, have long been of interest to western markets, but it’s no longer just the Korean diaspora or romance drama fans underserved by western markets checking out K-dramas, international watchers of Korean dramas have become much more “mainstream” in the last few years, especially with Netflix’s increased focus and investment in the region.

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Netflix has played a major role in this expansion of Korean TV into the global market. The streamer has not only scooped up an impressive backlog of Korean originals as a global distributor, but, since 2016, has been investing in the Korean TV industry at the production level. At the beginning of 2021, Netflix released an official statement announcing the leasing of two production facilities outside of Seoul, citing the move as “another important example of our continued commitment to investing in Korea’s creative ecosystem.” According to the release, from 2015 to 2020, Netflix invested over 700 million dollars in Korean content. The company also has multi-year content partnerships with CJ ENM/Studio Dragon and JTBC.

Suffice to say, Netflix has a solid Korean TV section, filled with some of the best K-dramas around, both new and old. If you’re new to the world of Korean TV or if you’re simply looking for your next watch, why not try out one of the following…

Crash Landing On You (2019)

The absolute top secret love story of a chaebol heiress who made an emergency landing in North Korea because of a paragliding accident and a North Korean special officer who falls in love with her and who is hiding and protecting her.

If you’re at all tapped into the K-drama scene, then you have at least heard of Crash Landing on You if not binged it multiple times. An original production from Netflix, Crash Landing On You pairs rom-com and character drama elements with an exploration of the cultural pain inherent in the separation between North and South Korea. With charismatic and vulnerable performances from veteran K-drama leads Son Ye-jin as South Korean heiress Yoon Se-ri and Hyun Bin as North Korean soldier Ri Jeong-hyeok; some gorgeous production values; and a memorably melodramatic soundtrack, Crash Landing On You is a whirlwind action-romance that was one of the best shows of 2020, full stop.

Kingdom (2019-present)

In a kingdom defeated by corruption and famine, a mysterious plague spreads to turn the infected into monsters. The crown prince, framed for treason and desperate to save his people, sets out on a journey to unveil what evil lurks in the dark.

If you prefer your TV more horror-driven, Korean TV has some notable shows for you. One of the most internationally popular is Kingdom, a historical zombie drama about a 17th century crown prince who has to fight against a mysterious plague of flesh-eating zombies that threatens to overtake his kingdom. Most K-dramas are structured to tell their entire story in one season, but Kingdom has already had two seasons with a third predicted to be on the way, as well as a one-off special that just premiered on Netflix called Kingdom: Ashin of the North. If you’re looking to get into a longer-running K-drama that favors horror over romance, this could be the one for you.

Squid Game (2021)

45.6 billion won. 456 contestants stake their lives on childhood games.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably already heard of Squid Game, which is on track to become Netflix’s most popular series ever. The Korean social thriller tells the story of a group of 456 desperate contestants who agree to compete in a deadly competition for the chance to win the kind of money that could change their lives forever. Socially relevant and compulsively watchable, Squid Game takes a familiar premise and makes it new again with compelling characters, exquisite visual style, and cultural specificity.

Hometown Cha Cha Cha (2021)

When things go awry in the city, a dentist decides to go back to her quiet seaside hometown for a fresh start. There, she finds herself at odds with the village go-to handyman who’s always up to help and fix what’s broken—perhaps even matters of the heart.

If you’re looking for something a little chiller after the horrors of Squid Game, try Hometown Cha Cha Cha, which is basically a Hallmark Christmas movie in series form (which is to say a cozy romance). The series, which is currently “airing” weekly on Netflix, sees a big city dentist named Hye-jin decide to open an office in the small seaside town of Gongjin, where she once visited with her family as a child. It all happens on a bit of a whim, with Hye-jin not fully prepared for the transition to rural life in a town where everyone knows everyone’s business. Enter Du-sik, the town’s darling jack-of-all-trades, who helps the townspeople by doing any and every job they might need. The two couldn’t be more different, but fate seems to have brought them together. You probably have an idea of what happens next…

When the Camellia Blooms (2019)

Dong-baek (Kong Hyo-jin) is the owner of a small-town bar called Camellia. Her ordinary life turns topsy-turvy when three men enter her life — a good guy, a bad guy, and a miserly guy. What kind of stories will unfold in this sleepy town full of colorful characters?

If you’re looking for another K-drama set outside of Seoul, When the Camellia Blooms is the story of a single mom Dong-baek, who moves to the fictional town of Ongsan where she opens a bar called Camellia. When local police officer Yong-sik declares his love for Dong-baek, she is initially not interested, but the two become closer the more time they spend together. Thrown in a solid supporting cast and a serial killer subplot and you’ve got yourself one of the most popular K-dramas in recent years.

It’s Okay to Not Be Okay (2020)

Desperate to escape from his emotional baggage and the heavy responsibility he’s had all his life, a psychiatric ward worker begins to heal with help from the unexpected—a woman who writes fairy tales but doesn’t believe in them.

There’s still a taboo around addressing mental illness in Korea, which is one of the many reasons why this 2020 drama about Gang-tae, a young man who is a caregiver at a psychiatric hospital, and Moon-young, a children’s author living with antisocial personality disorder, made such a splash. While the romance at its center is great, It’s Okay to Not Be Okay really shines in its exploration of Gang-tae’s relationship with his brother, Sang-tae, who is on the autism spectrum. In a press conference promoting the show (via Metro Style), Sang-tae actor Oh Jung-se said of the character: “If you meet someone like Sang-tae, who is on the autism spectrum, on the street, I think it would be nice if people could think ‘I would like to be with that person’ instead of ‘I would like to help that person.’”

Boys Over Flowers (2009)

Unassuming high school girl Jan-di stands up to — and eventually falls for — a spoiled rich kid who belongs to the school’s most powerful clique.

A K-drama classic, Boys Over Flowers follows working class student Geum Jan-di as she arrives at the elite Shinhwa High School on scholarship, only to meet and be unimpressed by a group of privileged boys known collectively as F4 who rule the school. The drama follows Jan-di as she goes from bullying target of F4 leader Jun-pyo to the object of his obsession. It’s a classic enemies-to-lovers set-up, and one that while cliche, is still worth a watch over a decade later, especially if you’re interested in checking out one of the most iconic K-dramas of all time.

Itaewon Class (2020)

On the vibrant streets of Itaewon, something is about to shake up the local food scene. Going up against the most powerful conglomerate in the industry, underdog Park Sae-ro-yi and his band of determined misfits seek to take over Itaewon and turn their ambitious dreams into reality.

Korean TV knows how to melodrama, and this story of revenge and romance set in Seoul’s popular Itaewon area leans into intense catharsis. Itaewon Class follows Park Sae-Ro-Yi, the owner of an up-and-coming Itaewon restaurant called DanBam that becomes a refuge for a group of social outcasts. Together, they work to take down the same business mogul responsible for the death of Sae-Ro-Yi’s father years earlier. Itaewon Class was extremely popular both in South Korea and internationally, and featured the first transgender character in a mainstream K-drama. Added bonus: the Itaewon Class soundtrack includes an original song from BTS’ V.

Mr Sunshine (2018)

In 1905, a Korean American U.S. marine officer returns to his homeland on a diplomatic assignment. Coping with his painful past in Korea as an orphaned servant boy, he finds himself in a complicated relationship with an aristocrat’s daughter.

If you’re into historically-driven period drama, then check out the beautifully-shot Mr. Sunshine. The K-drama is set in the late 19th and early 20th century in Hanseong, the city that would become Seoul and follows activists fighting for Korea’s independence. The story follows Go Ae-shin, an orphaned noblewoman who trains to be a sniper in the Righteous Army, the civilian militia that fought against the occupying Japanese forces, and Eugene Choi, a man who escaped slavery in Korea to become a U.S. marine, only to return to his homeland where he falls in love with Ae-shin. The series uses real-life history, including Shinmiyangyo, the Spanish-American War, the assassination of Empress Myeongseong, the Russo-Japanese War, Gojong’s forced abdication, and the Battle of Namdaemun as a backdrop for its epic story.

Signal (2016)

A cold-case profiler in 2015 and a detective in 1989 work together to solve a series of related murders spanning three decades using a special walkie-talkie to communicate with each other.

This premise has been used a lot—from 2000 Dennis Quaid/Jim Caviezel thriller Frequency to the 2016 CW TV adaptation of the same name—and for good reason. An analog device allows two people to communicate across time, and they must work to solve a murder together. It not only makes for compelling character drama, as two people become closer but are separated by years, but also is a fresh twist on the serial killer narrative. In K-drama Signal, the analog device is a walkie-talkie, and the characters on either temporal side of it are contemporary criminal profiler Park Hae-young and 1989-based Detective Cha Soo-hyun. If you’re looking for a good crime thriller, Signal could be it.

Hospital Playlist (2020-present)

Friends since undergrad school, five doctors remain close and share a love for music while working at the same hospital.

Like Kingdom, Hospital Playlist is the rare K-drama that tells its story across multiple seasons. The hospital drama just finished airing its second season weekly on Netflix, continuing its story about a group of doctors in their 40s who have been best friends since medical school. A true ensemble drama, Hospital Playlist is perfect for fans of Grey’s Anatomy but feels unique in its centering of a friend-group with a such a long history.

Vincenzo (2021)

Bringing his mafia past back with him to South Korea, Song Joong-ki stars as notorious Italian lawyer Vincenzo who isn’t afraid to lend his bloodstained hands to beat the untouchable conglomerates in their own game.

If you just watched the dramatic opening of Vincenzo, set in Italy days after the death of a mafia boss, you might think you’re in for a self-serious organized crime drama. But the Netflix K-drama quickly shifts into a story much more tonally complex. Part romance, part drama, part action thriller, Vincenzo has something for everyone. It follows Vincenzo (Space Sweepers‘ Song Joong-ki), a Korean lawyer raised by an Italian mafia family who must flee the country following his father’s death. As part of his plan of escape, Vincenzo travels to Korea to recover a stash of hidden gold under an old apartment building set for demolition by a corrupt corporation called the Babel Group. Because of this dilemma, Vincenzo becomes unlikely allies with the group of eccentric citizens who live in the building, as well as with a passionate and moral lawyer who has a vendetta against the Babel Group for his own reasons.

The “Reply” Series (2012-2016)

Take a nostalgic trip back to the late 1980s through the lives of five families and their five teenage kids living in a small neighborhood in Seoul.

The Reply series is one of the most popular cable dramas in Korean TV history. It launched in 2012 with Reply 1997 before continuing with Reply 1994 in 2013 and Reply 1988 in 2015. The ambitiously-structured series follows a group of friends and their kids, telling the story in present-day in addition to flashbacks. Featuring a fun soundtrack, as well as some incredibly performances, the Reply series is well worth a watch for anyone who loves character drama with a nostalgic twist.

Prison Playbook (2017)

With only days before his major league baseball debut, pitcher Kim Je-hyeok unexpectedly lands himself behind bars. He must learn to navigate his new world with its own rules if he wants to survive.

Prison Playbook is much more slow-paced than many of the selections on the list, but this character drama is worth the dedication. Though it’s often touted as a “black comedy,” it’s much more tonally light than that suggests, despite the subject matter. The story follows baseball pitcher Kim Je Hyeok, who is incarcerated days before his major league debut for assaulting the attempted rapist of his sister. It follows his life within prison, along with the lives of some of the other inmates and guards, including his old best friend, Lt. Lee Joon Ho, who is a correctors officer. Created by Lee Woo-jung, who also made the aforementioned Reply series, Prison Playbook is one of the most popular K-dramas in Korean cable history ever.

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Sweet Home (2020)

As humans turn into savage monsters, one troubled teenager and his neighbors fight to survive and to hold onto their humanity.

It’s been well-documented that Song Kang is a K-drama darling. The actor has appeared in many a romantic K-drama, including Netflix’s Nevertheless and Love Alarm. Sweet Home, however, is his rare horror appearance, and it’s well worth a watch just to see Song in a completely different context. Of course, this apocalyptic horror story has other qualities too, and holds the honor of being the first Korean series to enter the U.S. Netflix Top Ten. Based on a Naver (aka Korean Google) webcomic of the same name, Sweet Home follows Cha Hyun-soo (Song), a high school student who moves into an apartment building after the deaths of his parents, only to discover that the building also happens to be the home of a species of monsters set on world domination.

Nevertheless (2021)

Like a butterfly hopelessly attracted to a flower, this art student can’t seem to resist the mysterious young man who captures her attention. But the more they get romantically involved, the sooner she will have to decide—will getting close be worth it, when he doesn’t believe in relationships?

Speaking of Song Kang… Nevertheless is the latest K-drama to star the 27-year-old actor. The romantic drama stars Han So-hee as Yoo Na-bi, university art student who no longer believes in love following discovering her boyfriend has been cheating on her. When she meets Song’s Park Jae-eon, she is immediately intrigued. Though the two share an immediate attraction, they resist entering into a relationship due to their respective uncertainties about love. Based on a popular webcomic of the same name, Nevertheless feels unique in its treatment of modern dating life in Korea, depicting some of the more realistic, often internal struggles of what its like to date in your 20s.

My Mister (2018)

In a world that is less than kind, a young woman and a middle-aged man develop a sense of kinship as they find warmth and comfort in one another.

If you’re in the mood to cry, try My Mister, a drama about a financially-disadvantaged young woman just trying to stay afloat as she takes care of her sick grandmother amid mounting debt and a much more financially-privileged middle-aged man who is also being crushed by the weight of his life. The two work together, and form a (mostly) platonic relationship that helps both of them heal. Understated and deeply emotional at the same time, My Mister will subvert so many K-drama expectations in clever ways.

Memories of the Alhambra (2018)

While looking for the cryptic creator of an innovative augmented-reality game, an investment firm executive meets a woman who runs a hostel in Spain.

If you’re looking for another K-drama starring Crash Landing on You‘s Hyun Bin (and of course you are), then look no further than Memories of the Alhambra, a 2018 K-drama with an absolutely batshit (read: amazing) premise. Hyun stars as Yoo Jin-woo, a CEO who travels to Spain in search of the creator of an AR game set in the Spanish medieval fortress Alhambra. Once there, Jin-woo is pulled into a reality-bending mystery with life-or-death stakes and some unpredictable twists that I don’t want to spoil for you.

Romance is a Bonus Book (2019)

A gifted writer who’s the youngest editor-in-chief ever at his publishing company gets enmeshed in the life of a former copywriter desperate for a job.

Ostensibly based on the TV series Younger, Romance is a Bonus Book is a rom-com set in the publishing industry world. It follows single mom Kang Dan Yi as she struggles to reenter the workforce following her divorce. When he lies about her background to get a job, her life becomes tangled up with childhood friend and publishing phenom Cha Eun Ho.

I began watching this series to see how it compared to the U.S. version of the show, of which I am a fan. Honestly, these two series have only the most superficial details of their plots in common, which is par for the course in many adaptations. Romance is a Bonus Book is much more romance-centric than Younger, which balances the love life of its central protagonist with the many other relationships and concerns she has in her life. But that isn’t a bad thing. They are two very different shows with their own interests and strengths, but if you’re a fan of both rom-coms and the publishing industry, then both Romance is a Bonus Book and Younger are worth a watch.

Black (2017)

A man possessed by death. A woman who can see death. The earthly and the afterworld collide dangerously.

One character is possessed by the Grim Reaper. The other can see deadly spirits. Only Korean can turn this premise into a heartbreaking romance, as the two work together to save people marked for death. If you’re looking for a spooky season watch, you can’t go wrong with Black, which is a delightful (and, honestly, pretty complex) hodgepodge of Korean horror all wrapped up in a rom-com package.

What is your favorite K-drama on Netflix? And what upcoming Netflix K-dramas are you most looking forward to? Let us know in the comments below?

The post The Best Korean Dramas on Netflix to Watch Right Now appeared first on Den of Geek.

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the-blonde-0ne · 5 years

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Not yet

Shikamaru Week 2019 - Day 4: Tears | Proposal - Fanfiction

(Fanfiction.net link)

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Temari looked at the clock resting on her dresser. It was 1 a.m. She rubbed a hand on her tired, sore eyes and looked outside the window. The sky was dark, countless stars were shining around the moon that gleamed upon Konoha. The young woman sighed and turned her attention on the papers scattered on the table.

She had been in the Leaf for the past four days. Her presence had been required by the Hokage in order to discuss some guidelines about the new shinobi curriculum the village was trying to establish cooperating with the other ones. After the war, it had been quite common for her to visit other villages, but she enjoyed travelling to Konoha the most, as it meant she would be able to spend some time with her boyfriend.

Things didn't go as she had expected though. Temari knew something was off the moment she entered the gate and didn't find Shikamaru waiting for her.

In his place was a Leaf jounin who escorted her to the Hokage's office. Her discomfort didn't go unnoticed to the Sixth, who promptly told her Shikamaru had been charged with the coordination of a task force that was meant to guide the new strategic department. Temari knew what it meant: he wouldn't have much spare time to spend with her.

She was right. They managed to meet only one day after her arrival. They had dinner together, then they didn't see each other for the next two days. And there she was, spending her last night in the village all alone, in that same apartment she shared with her brothers during her first trip to Konoha, reading reports and dossiers, trying not to mind the bags full of food and drinks she had bought for their dinner.

Shikamaru had promised her they would have spent at least that night together. He was supposed to meet her in her apartment to eat together, then take a walk or just quietly enjoy each other's company.

He didn't show up. Temari wasn't really worried. She knew he probably was overwhelmed with work. She had gone from angry to disappointed several times that night. Now she was just depressed. She hoped he would at least be able to greet her at the gates before her departure, as he always did.

Temari sighed again and got up. Reading papers hadn't distracted her as much as she thought, so she decided it wasn't worth her time. She headed towards her bedroom to change into her night clothes and finally go to sleep.

A loud knock came from the front door. Temari stopped in her tracks. She turned around and rushed to open it. Shikamaru stood on the other side of the doorway, looking terribly tired and regretful. He was still wearing his flak jacket and he was carrying a pack of papers under his arm.

«I'm sorry», he muttered looking at her.

«You'd better be…», she answered sharply. She regretted immediately her harsh words. She knew it wasn't his fault, but she couldn't help feeling upset.

«Listen, I wanted to spend time with you too, but things are really troublesome and…», he said taking a step into the room.

«I know, I know…», she retorted closing the door.

«Did you eat?», he asked her glancing at the bags on the table.

«No. I lost my appetite», she answered plainly. Shikamaru's eyes lowered. He grumbled something and put down the pack of papers.

«Put your shoes on. We have to go out», he said rubbing the back of his neck. Temari looked at him with wide eyes.

«Excuse me?!», she said in disbelief. «Shikamaru, I'm leaving at dawn. I was about to go to sleep», her eyes narrowed. «Do you even remember I'm leaving in literally four hours?», she asked him.

«Yes, of course I do. That's why we need to go now», he reasoned, a small blush coloring his cheeks.

«What's wrong with you?», she exclaimed starting to lose her patience. «I'm tired and I need to rest. Where are we supposed to go anyway?»

Shikamaru looked away from her face, trying to hide his discomfort.

«I can't tell you», he answered vaguely. Temari felt her face heat up. That situation was annoying her.

«No. We had four days», she told him. Shikamaru turned his gaze on her again. She could tell by the slight tremble of his lower lip he was terribly nervous.

«Temari, please. We need to do this… before you leave…», he added looking pleadingly at her. She looked away, unable to hold his gaze. A few seconds passed in silence.

«Fine», she agreed. Shikamaru's face lighted up. Temari grabbed her shoes and sat down to put them on, mumbling. «It'd better be worth it…»

They left the apartment and went straight towards the northern region of the village. Shikamaru was completely silent and since they started walking he seemed to refuse to look at her. Temari decided to just follow him without further complaining. Soon after, they reached the neighborhood where his house stood among others of his clansmen's. Before actually reaching his home, however, he abruptly turned to his right and guided her towards a narrow, almost invisible path that opened between his own garden and his neighbor's. She shot at him a questioning look, but he still didn't dare to turn towards her. They walked along the path for a few more minutes before Temari decided to speak again.

«Where are we going?», she asked.

«I can't tell you», Shikamaru answered plainly.

«Why not?», she pressed. Shikamaru didn't answer her latest question. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it, hoping it would calm her down. Temari was about to talk again but the feeling of his skin against hers stopped her. His hand was hot, something that never happened to him, except when he was nervous or uneasy.

She didn't know what to think about it. She was used to his calmness and those changes in his mood always startled her. She started fearing something had happened. It couldn't be something good, he wouldn't be so hesitant about it if that was the case. What could it be to affect him that way? A shiver ran down her spine. There was the possibility he wanted to talk to her about their relationship. Maybe he wasn't happy with her anymore. Maybe he realized it was too troublesome. Maybe he realized she was too troublesome. Temari forced herself to repress that thought. If he wanted to end their relationship, why would he have insisted on taking her to some mysterious place? He could have just told her earlier, when he had come to her apartment.

«Here we are».

Shikamaru's voice brought her back to reality. She was so lost in her own thoughts she hadn't realized he had stopped. They had reached a small clearing, on the top of a small, gentle hill surrounded by high and mighty trees whose fronds covered almost completely the dark, starry sky. Beyond their strong trunks, the village's lights shone illuminating the night. The view was quite stunning.

Shikamaru squeezed her hand tighter.

« This forest… is special», he said, staring at the village laying peacefully at the base of the hill. «Nobody but Nara Clan members are allowed to enter it…»

Temari frowned.

«What's the point in of all this then…», she mumbled, feeling more and more uneasy. What damn game was he playing? First he persuaded her to follow him to some weird, mysterious place, then he states she shouldn't even be there. «I'm not a Nara…», she whispered to herself, unconsciously voicing her thoughts.

«No…», Shikamaru said quietly. «Not yet…»

Temari's heart skipped a beat. She felt her face warming up and her hand, still held in his, trembled slightly. Her eyes were fixed on the yellow lights scattered among the village, unable to move.

«I don't know why I've never told you before, but when we got caught into the Infinite Tsukuyomi, you were in my dream», Shikamaru told her. His voice was a mere whisper, but somehow she could clearly hear every word he spoke. «We were watching my parents, and my sensei, Asuma. He was struggling, trying to hold his newborn daughter. My mom was yelling at my old man. I remember saying perhaps marrying someone would be too troublesome, and you agreed with me».

«Why are you telling me this now?», Temari asked him. Her voice trembled. She felt overwhelmed with all the emotions that his words awakened all at once in her chest. She was starting to feel dizzy, and even before she could fully understand what he had said, he spoke again.

«I've been thinking about it lately and… although I still think marriage is bothersome, there are people who are lucky enough to find someone that makes it worth it. It took me a while to realize it, but I am among those ones».

That was it. She had no more doubts. Her heart started beating so fast she feared it could burst. Her mind was spinning madly, her face was burning. She felt him moving for the first time since he started talking. Shikamaru turned towards her. He rested his hands on her waist and gently pulled her closer. Temari couldn't help but lower her eyes. She was sure she would faint if her eyes met his. However, Shikamaru had something else in mind.

«Look at me...», he said, his fingers brushed gently on her cheek before resting under her chin. «I am lucky because I found you», he told her lifting his hand, making her look at him. She finally locked eyes with him. A light blush was covering his cheeks. The slight trembling of his voice was proof of his nervousness, but the glint shining in his eyes showed how resolute he was. He tightened his grip around her waist, pulling her in his arms.

«Temari, you are worth all the trouble, the pain, the bother. You are worth it all. Will you… Do you want to marry me?»

She was glad he was holding her so firmly. She would have definitely collapsed otherwise. She kept staring at him, mouth slightly opened, burning cheeks, and barely breathing.

Shikamaru didn't move his gaze from her face, while he mentally cursed himself. He had done everything wrong. Nothing had gone as he had planned. He had a good strategy, he should have gone down on his knee, pull out the ring he had bought for her, and ask her to marry him properly. But when he turned around and looked at her, he forgot everything about his perfect plan. His instinct took over and all he could do was follow it. So here he was, holding her in his arms, the ring still hidden in his pocket. He had ruined it all. And he started panicking when Temari's eyes started to fill with tears. He couldn't blame her for looking so lost. He probably had to give her time to ponder over his words.

«Yes…»

«What?»

Maybe that wasn't necessary.

«Yes…», Temari said again, as a single tear escaped her eye. She finally smiled at him, and that was all Shikamaru needed to overcome all his doubts. He wiped away the tear that was lingering on her cheek with his thumb and smiled gently as she threw her arms around his body and buried her head in the crook of his neck. He hugged her tightly, placing a soft kiss behind her ear.

He had been an idiot to even think he could stick to his plan. No matter how smart he was, she could change his mood, his actions, his life in a blink of an eye. None of his strategies would never work when it came to her.

One more reason why his love for her would never end.

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A/N: Hello:) I know it’s been a while since last time I wrote something, I might be rusty, but I hope you’ll enjoy this story anyway. Comments, reviews, constructive criticism are always welcomed!

#shikamaruweek2019 #shikamaru #shikamaru nara #temari #temari nara #temari no sabaku #shikatema #proposal #tears #kiara writes #shikatema fanfiction #not yet

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baxterfilms · 6 years

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Film Essay: STAND BY ME

(WARNING: spoilers ahead!)

In their book Screening Scripture: Intertextual Connections Between Scripture and Film, George Aichele and Richard G. Walsh explain the meaning to come of age as "a delicate mixture of rebellion, assistance, discovery and accommodation." Fundamental in many narrative stories, coming-of-age films follow characters that undertake a rite of passage to find a new sense within themselves. This transitions them into maturity, bestowing a vast sense of their own individuality and direction in life they, at first, thought impractical.

Often, in the course of a coming-of-age film, the protagonist or protagonists—often precocious beyond their years—accept the quest from their struggle to claim an identity outside of their social norms, outside of their own family or community. Examples of reasons for the protagonist to progress would be an event, a traumatic loss, banishment, escape, or battling against their own internal and external obstacles in their normal environment. Coming-of-age films revolve around a young persons’ desire to find their own honesty as individuals, previously unchallenged before they embarked on their personal journey.

Jule Selbo’s Film Genre for the Screenwriter categorizes the genre with different age groups: pre-teen (12 or younger), teen/adolescence (13-19) and pre-adolescence (20 and over). Selbo also states an undocumented detail that young audience members prefer coming-of-age films where “the protagonist is a few years older than the viewer,” allowing them the opportunity to alter their vision of the future from the character’s pedagogical objective. Thereby, much like the central character (or characters), the journey shapes and molds them with a keen perspective on reality after viewing. The specific knowledge gained from the genre, where the film allows itself to gain access to “memories of insecurity, immature behavior, stubbornness in the face of change,” and similar emotions invoke reality, which, if successful, resonates with observers.

Set in the small town of Castle Rock, Oregon, in the summer of 1959, Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me adheres to the pre-teen age group of coming-of-age films. These focus on friendship and teamwork to further understand the adult world. A quartet of twelve-year old boys embark on an overnight camping trip to find the dead body of Ray Brower—a boy about their age—in order to claim his body and better their reputations with acclaim and publicity, with thoughts of their faces featured on television or a newspaper.

Told through flashback by Gordie LaChance (Wil Wheaton) as an adult (Richard Dreyfus), his other friends are Chris Chambers (River Phoenix), the tough leader of their gang and part of a bad family scorned by the community, including his alcoholic father and his other hoodlum brother Eyeball. Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman) is the disturbed, bespectacled member of the group, with a father given to psychotic fits of rage; in one particular incident, he held his son’s ear to a stove, almost burning it off. The chubby and pathetic Vern is always the target of their jokes, due to his timid nature and peculiar behavior.

The train tracks that lead the characters further to Ray Brower’s corpse builds on character growth throughout much of the film. Reiner and the child actors showcase a sense of camaraderie among the four boys, including frequent displays of childish behavior, given their age. Of course, the drawback to this behavior is an inability to cope with their central problems in a mature way. The train tracks may provide the way forward, but carries danger when speeding locomotives make their route. In one scene, Teddy stands on the tracks, wanting to dodge the train as it travels in front of him. In his mind, he is a soldier centered at the beach of Normandy, where he claims his father fought during World War II. Teddy still stands, with his sleeping pack adjusted like a machine gun, as the train draws closer. Chris grabs and takes him off the tracks, since Teddy’s intentions might have been suicidal instead of playful. His indignant response to Chris after being saved: “I don’t need no babysitter.”

The boys pursue the quest to find Dan Brower’s body not only to appear heroic, but also to emerge brave men in the eyes of their community. Gordie has the benefit of the American middle-class, it is not ideal as one would hope. The sensitive Gordie is the “invisible boy” in his own home, even more so after his older brother Dennie’s death from a Jeep accident. Shown in the young Gordie’s memories, his brother was considerate and encouraging towards him than his parents, especially his domineering father. In the two scenes with the brothers together, Dennie gives Gordie his Yankees baseball cap and praises a story he had written while their father chooses to keep the subject of Dennie’s all-star football match at the dinner table. Evidently, Gordie bears a resemblance to his brother, according to a store clerk he encounters while purchasing food for the trip.

Gordie providing the food for the group alludes to the boys’ maturity, as well. Though they want to gain a newfound wisdom after they find Ray Brower’s corpse, the boys still lack basic judgment. They forget to pack food for their excursion and have to contribute pocket change to survive, which comes to a paltry $2.37, with Vern having only seven cents. In another instance of youthful naïveté, a farfetched urban legend about the vicious junkyard dog Chopper—reputable for attacking specific parts of the male anatomy—also confirms their simplicity consistent within their age group. This legend is debunked when it is seems Chopper is only a small golden retriever. In one scene, their boyish innocence in an age where early stages of puberty loom over them, indicative when they mention Annette Funicello’s increasing breast size on The Mickey Mouse Club.

In one exchange between Gordie and his father, he tells his son that he does not approve of his friends, which he deems “a thief [Chris] and two feebs [Teddy and Vern].” His father’s denigration towards them dooms him, but it provides a springboard from his father’s all-American standards, since Gordie’s friends do not possess the machismo or intellectual as his older brother’s. The emotional layers within the characters that permeate the film are quite evident. Teddy emulates the valiant military soldier in his father, through ersatz battle cries and machine gun fire. The fact that he endured his abuse does not matter to him; what he sees in his eyes is a true man who withstood combat. Chris has committed petty crimes, but he does not want to share the notoriety his family is known for at Castle Rock. He becomes a victim of prejudice when he returns milk money he had stolen from school to one of his teachers. However, the money had not been returned, resulting in a three-day suspension for Chris, all because the teacher stole it back to buy a new dress.

In their writings of coming-of-age films, George Aichele and Richard G. Walsh state that often in this genre, when a protagonist chooses to separate from their home and community, they journey along and conquer obstacles with the help of a friend that serves as a guide. In a scene that separates the boys into two separate groups along the train tracks, there is an implication that Gordie has a worldly skill to become successful in the future, but not as bright for the other three, obstructed by their idiosyncrasies. Stand By Me takes place shortly before the new school year, and the boys are each defined by the “shop” and “college” courses they will enroll. Whatever Chris believes that Gordie will befriend better classmates, while the rest will be “with the rest of the retards, making ashtrays and birdhouses.” To Chris, if Gordie remains with the gang, he will not become successful as a writer. However, Gordie’s lingering thoughts over his father’s harsh opinions—not explicitly present in the film—make him doubtful about these notions and does not wish to leave his friends.

As their journey grows precarious, the sooner their relationship wanes. Gordie spends a moment of solitude away from his friends, when he makes eye contact with a deer on the train tracks. To him, this is more significant than the usual horseplay he participates in with his friends. His communication with nature reflects how Gordie had felt alone, having lost his brother and raised by an unappreciative family, but if the deer is able to adapt to its surroundings and survive on its own, so can he. However, after the group moves forward across a deep pond, they fool around and dunk each other before they find leeches on their bodies. After evacuating from the water, Gordie faints after finding a leech in his private region. The gang has second thoughts about continuing their journey but Gordie wants to move forward. The narrator implies he would have wanted to travel alone and focus on the task, and not engage in immature antics any longer.

In an age where life demands Gordie and his friends to make decisions about expectations in education, Ray Brower’s corpse is the transition into their teenage years before they arrive back at school. The store clerk mentions a quote from the Bible that acknowledges mortality: “In the midst of life, we are in death.” Though the boys are able to enjoy life’s pleasures, they should not take full advantage of them. When Gordie sees the body, he sobs, wondering why Dennie had died and left him with an ungracious family, stemmed from a nightmare that occurs earlier in the film. In the dream, Dennie’s casket lowers underground, and Gordie’s father turns to his other son and states that it should have been Gordie who died. Meanwhile, rival hoodlums older than the boys, with Chris’ brother Eyeball among them, decide to claim the body and threaten to kill them if they interfere. Like Gordie and his friends, publicity is their gain.

Earlier in the film, a part of Gordie’s deceased brother is desecrated when Eyeball snatches his baseball cap back home. When Ace (the leader of the group) attacks Chris, Gordie commits his own righteous act by pointing at Ace with a .45 caliber handgun he brought along. His retribution has a dual purpose—Gordie refuses to have his memories stripped away and perhaps, a change of heart over Ray Brower’s corpse. Ace and his gang leave, and the boys decide not to claim the body, leaving behind the accolades they yearned throughout their entire trip. When they travel back home, they barely speak to each other, their lives restricted and their town of Castle Rock smaller and different from when they left.

Life, especially childhood, is short. In a coming-of-age film, if the protagonist has a friend that serves as a guide, after the obstacles they have withstood, they at least consider their advice. Gordie becomes a writer, obviously encouraged by Chris, and this story serves as his latest written work in progress. He reveals that he had not seen the rest of the gang in years, but he reveals their futures ahead of them, as they wave their farewells to each other and fade away. Vern is a married man with four children, working as a forklift operator in a lumberyard. Teddy’s deformed ear and poor eyesight led to his rejection from the Army, and has spent time in prison, leading to low-level odd jobs around Castle Rock. Chris enrolled in the college courses with Gordie and became a lawyer before he is stabbed to death in a fast-food restaurant. His last sentence he writes on his computer sends the message further: “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anybody?”

Director Rob Reiner spoke about his interpretation on the film’s meaning and stated: “It was all about the beginnings of learning to like yourself, beginning to accept yourself, with the help of good friends who could help you validate yourself by seeing what was good in you.”

#Stand By Me #rob reiner #coming-of-age films #filmmaking #screenwriting #film analysis

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enubus · 2 years

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Horowitz: Studies show an aggressive vitamin D campaign could have prevented nearly all COVID deaths

What if we could simply have advised everyone last March to supplement with vitamin D (and active forms of D for those with absorption issues)? An endless stream of academic research demonstrates that not only would such an approach have worked much better than the vaccines, but rather than coming with sundry known and unknown negative side effects, it would have induced immeasurable positive side effects in the population for an array of other health concerns.

I recently changed doctors in search of a physician who actually follows science rather than political protocols from government and Big Pharma. My wife was searching through my medical records and found that eight years ago, my D level was just 18 ng/mL, well below the cutoff for insufficiency. Yet my former doctor never informed me of it or flagged it as a concern. Fast-forward to today after months of supplementing, thanks to the advice of people like Dr. Ryan Cole, and my level is at 67. This likely means that when the pandemic hit last March, my levels were still woefully low.

According to a new German study, the difference between a level of 18 and one over 50 is the difference between life and death. Why has this education not gotten out to the public, especially now that we are in the winter season when there is essentially no natural vitamin D from sunlight above the 37th parallel? Or is the obfuscation by design?

With studies having shown zero correlation between lockdowns, masks, and vaccines and better COVID outcomes, there are now 142 studies vouching for the near-perfect correlation between higher vitamin D levels and better outcomes in COVID patients. It is likely the area of COVID-19 treatment research that has the most data behind it. However, a recent German study stands out from all of them because it comes the closest to proving this ironclad correlation to be causation.

Not only did the German researchers find a linear relationship between vitamin D levels and mortality from COVID, but they also found essentially zero morbidity for those with a D level above 50 ng/mL. The reason this study is so important relative to the dozens of others tracking D levels with COVID outcomes is that it measured the levels months before the patients got COVID as well as after the infection onset. “In most studies, the vitamin D level was determined several days after the onset of infection; therefore, a low vitamin D level may be the result and not the trigger of the course of infection,” note the authors.

This study, however, followed 1,601 hospitalized patients, 784 who had their vitamin D levels measured within a day after admission and 817 whose vitamin D levels were known before infection. As an adjunct to this sample, researchers also analyzed the long-term average vitamin D3 levels documented for 19 countries. The observed median vitamin D value overall collected study cohorts were 23.2 ng/mL, which is considered insufficient. The results were remarkable.

“At a threshold level of 30 ng/mL, mortality decreases considerably,” found the authors. “In addition, our analysis shows that the correlation for the combined datasets intersects the axis at approximately 50 ng/mL, which suggests that this vitamin D3 blood level may prevent any excess mortality. These findings are supported not only by a large infection study, showing the same optimum but also by the natural levels observed in traditional people living in the region where humanity originated from that we're able to fight down most (not all) infections in most (not all) individuals.”

Based on these findings, they conclude that people should test their blood levels and supplement to get their levels over 50. Studies have already shown that one is 14 times more likely to die from COVID with vitamin D deficiency

The reality is that most people’s levels are below 30 and many are closer to zero, especially among the elderly population. It is beyond criminal that 20 months into this endeavor there has not been a national campaign percolating down to primary care physicians to test and supplement vitamin D levels accordingly. Think of the numerous benefits of vitamin D — from a healthier immune system and stronger bones to decreased risk for heart attack and cancer — as opposed to the risks of so many of the other things we are harnessing to “fight” this virus. Why on earth would vitamin D not become the new vaccine when it provides more protection against the virus than any vaccine?

What is particularly scandalous is that the authors found that black people living in northern countries have lower vitamin D levels in general, and yet there has been no governmental push to raise awareness of their vitamin D deficiency. Instead, there is a relentless effort to shame them into taking shots that are unsafe and ineffective.

As the authors explain, the main cause of death from COVID stems from a “cytokine storm” when the body’s immune system releases too many toxic cytokines as part of the inflammatory response to the virus. Vitamin D is the key regulator of those cells, and the insufficient amount of D is nearly synonymous with a greater risk for a cytokine storm. In many ways, a cytokine storm is literally the outcome of vitamin D deficiency.

We’ve had 20 months to get our levels over 50, and certainly at least over 30. I had my levels increase by approximately 50 NGS/mL in a half year. Had the public been doing this at the same time, most deaths could have been avoided. Those with absorption problems could have been given the active form of D – either calcifediol or calcitriol – to raise their levels, bypassing the liver’s metabolic process very quickly. Studies have shown that almost anyone hospitalized with low levels but given the active form of D did not progress to the ICU thereafter.

A new study from Turkish researchers found that even a rapid regimen of regular vitamin D3 to get people’s levels over 30 was wildly successful compared to people without supplementation. They found that those who used their treatment protocol to get their levels over 30 — even if they had comorbidities — were much better off than those without comorbidities who didn’t supplement. “Our treatment protocol increased the serum 25OHD levels significantly to above 30 ng/mL within two weeks,” concluded the authors. “COVID-19 cases (no comorbidities, no vitamin D treatment, 25OHD <30 ng/mL) had 1.9-fold increased risk of having hospitalization longer than 8 days compared with the cases with comorbidities and vitamin D treatment.”

Hence, if one believes government can violate human rights and place mandates on one’s body to get a job if the government made a rule that you have to get your D level over 50 to get a job, at least it would be following the science. Not only are people with high D levels better off personally, unlike vaccinated individuals with low D levels, but they are also much less likely to affect other people by spreading the disease because they have lower viral loads. A meta-analysis of 23 published studies containing 11,901 participants found that one who is vitamin D-deficient was 3.3 times more likely to get infected with SARS-CoV-2 than one who is not deficient.

As a nation, we have been willing to harm our children, society, economy, mental health, and physical health with masks, lockdowns, shots, and experimental therapeutics that have zero or limited proven efficacy. Why would we not try an approach that comes with positive, rather than negative, side effects for our whole health? Perhaps the answer lies in what Big Pharma doesn’t want us to know about the benefits of high-dose vitamin D — not just for COVID but for other ailments they rely upon for their existence. All the political policies flow downstream from there.

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orbemnews · 3 years

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Europe's much-criticized pursuit of Chinese cash may be starting to unravel For much of the past decade, the world’s largest trading bloc has gone out of its way to establish an economic partnership with Beijing that doesn’t conflict too aggressively with Brussels’ lofty values. The EU was criticized from both in and outside the bloc when it announced last December the conclusion in principle of negotiations with the Chinese government on its “Comprehensive Agreement on Investment” (CAI). Any agreement like this needs to be approved by the EU’s 27 member states and ratified by the European parliament. Precisely how bound China would be to any of the EU’s redlines was an immediate cause for concern. “The deal makes statements about human rights and forced labor, but there is no way of forcing China to do anything,” says Samira Rafaela, a member of the EU parliament who sits on the international trade committee. Many of Rafaela’s colleagues across the political spectrum clearly agree. Last week, the parliament voted on a motion to freeze the CAI until further notice. Ostensibly, this was in protest at China placing sanctions on five MEPs who had criticized China’s treatment of Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang among other things. However, in reality the sanctions were really the final straw for some who couldn’t stomach Brussels striking a friendly deal with a government in Beijing that allegedly imprisons people in forced labor camps, undermines democracy in Hong Kong and is increasingly hostile in its own region. “The statement we are sending with this motion isn’t simply, if China lifts the sanctions then CAI is back on the table,” says Reinhard Bütikofer, chair of the parliament’s delegation on China relations. “If sanctions are lifted, we will look at the detail, but it’s currently far from satisfactory. It’s weak on forced labor, weak on sustainability, weak on dispute resolutions. These problems will still exist even if we resurrect the agreement.” Given the chances of China lifting these sanctions any time soon is virtually zero, this creates a problem for the top brass in the EU Commission, who have invested a lot of political capital in the deal. For the EU’s increasingly political executive branch, China formed a key part of its plan to become a bigger player on the global stage and become diplomatically independent of its most important ally: the United States. “Strategic autonomy,” as Brussels calls it, has been a priority for EU officials who are concerned about Europe’s inherent vulnerabilities, be they from Russian aggression in the east, over-reliance on China for medical supplies or the risk of another president like Donald Trump pulling American troops out of Europe. “The China agreement was a big plank in that strategy,” says Steven Blockmans, director of research at the Centre for European Policy Studies. “If the Chinese and European parliament don’t move, the EU risks losing a deal that would have cemented the idea it can make decisions to defend its own commercial interests, without having to call the White House first.” Despite the European parliament’s protests, the commission still thinks the deal is right for the EU. Officials who spoke with CNN explained that they understood the parliament’s concerns and that the political conditions didn’t exist at the moment. One official even lauded the parliament’s action, saying it provided proof that “economic interests will not prevent the EU from standing up for human rights.” However, they also said this was a rare window of opportunity to get China committing to something on paper, and that window could run out for political reasons — most notably after upcoming elections in France and Germany, the two member states most supportive of the deal. It’s at member state level that the apparent split between parliament and commission gets interesting. It’s been known for some time that locking in some kind of formal relationship with China was a big priority for Angela Merkel as she tries to nail down her legacy. The German Chancellor will stand down after 16 years in power this autumn, as Germany holds federal elections. As things stand, it’s likely that Merkel’s party — no longer with a leader who holds as much political capital as her — will have to enter a coalition with the anti-Beijing Greens. This could significantly soften German support for the deal. The other key sponsor of the deal was French President Emmanuel Macron, a man who also faces re-election next year. The fact that Macron’s biggest rival is far-right Marine Le Pen has led some to think he might, in the coming months, cool on globalist policies. As for the other member states, diplomats who spoke to CNN pointed out that the CAI is not a full trade deal and that there was no urgent need to rush anything through. As one diplomat put it, “there is an awakening in Europe about the real character of its relationship with China and governments don’t like it. This will be parked for a while is my guess.” The commission remains convinced that its political capital was well spent and that member states will ultimately choose their economies over other priorities. “Even if leadership changes, the economic reality in Germany and France isn’t going to change, and economics has a habit of trumping other concerns,” the diplomat said. Philippe Lamberts, a senior Belgian MEP, disagrees: “I think EU-China relations are going to get worse before they get better. Even if they lift their sanctions, what message does it send on European values if we agree a deal with such weak provisions on human rights, democracy and sustainability?” The EU’s record on human rights, critics argue, is already patchy. While last week the European parliament did stand up to both China and Turkey — calling for the suspension of talks with Ankara to join the bloc over its own human rights record — campaigners say that the EU is not doing enough to uphold its own standards on human records inside or outside the bloc. “Trade and investment are an area where economic interests have always prevailed over respect for human rights, as much as security concerns have always prevailed in migration management,” says Elena Crespi, program officer for Western Europe at the International Federation for Human Rights. And while the parliament has a good track record on human rights, awarding its Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to an imprisoned Uyghur scholar in 2019, critics believe the commission falls short in comparison. “The current commission is not sufficiently doing its job in upholding European values,” says Alice Stollmeyer, executive director of Defend Democracy. “Whether it’s fudging on rule of law in Hungary and Poland or failing to properly speak out against atrocities elsewhere, the EU sadly seems to have a policy of appeasement for abusers.” It’s no secret that the EU is in a transitional phase. Those at the center of the project see a future of closer union and its officials in Brussels becoming serious players on the world stage in their own right. If a balanced relationship with China was indeed central to this, the current mood among elected politicians across the member states will be of serious concern to the Brussels elite. Perhaps more worrying, Blockmans points out, is whether China reassesses how much it wants a deal with the bloc. “It might be that China still sees the EU as a secondary player — a lackey to the US. If that’s that case, they might decide that this is a deal worth collapsing for their own political ends.” Regardless, the point is moot while Europe’s political class refuses to even look at this deal. The longer this deadlock on sanctions goes on, the greater the chance it totally collapses. And it if does, those at the top table in Brussels might regret investing so much political capital in dealing with one of the world’s worst human rights offenders. Source link Orbem News #cash #Chinese #Europes #muchcriticized #Pursuit #starting #unravel

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penzanews · 3 years

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SPIEF 2021 in live format to give new impetus to business ties development amid pandemic

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent greetings to participants, organizers and guests of the 24th St Petersburg International Economic Forum, which will be held in a live format at the Expoforum Convention and Exhibition Center on June 2–5, with strict adherence to safety measures to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus infection.

As he noted, according to the established tradition the key and most pressing issues facing the economies will be discussed at the forum with the participation of prominent public officials, senior executives from major corporations and financial institutions, renowned experts, and pioneering entrepreneurs.

“The need for open, constructive dialogue is particularly evident today. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all countries across the globe, and has severely restricted international ties. It is vital to work together as we forge a path to recovery. Other socioeconomic issues such as poverty relief, improving education opportunities, expanding employment and prospects for labour markets, as well as addressing violations of fair competition principles also require careful attention,” says Russian President’s message published on the Kremlin website.

“We must now endeavour to build equal, constructive partnerships between members of the global community and expand business ties on a number of levels to effectively tackle today’s critical global challenges and achieve sustainable development. We have long worked towards these ends through the Eurasian Economic Union, promoting principles of free trade, and facilitating mutually beneficial investments and common technological development. The Russian Federation is also interested in closer economic, scientific, and technical cooperation with partners in other regions. We are ready to share our experience in areas such as healthcare and digitalisation, and to work with partners to build better telecommunications, energy, and transport infrastructure. We also recognize the importance of addressing key issues facing the environment and climate,” the message says.

Moreover, in his greeting, Vladimir Putin, who is going to attend SPIEF 2021 Plenary Session in person, expressed confidence that the agreements reached at the Forum will contribute to the development of international relations and facilitate the implementation of new economic projects.

The main theme of the Forum is “A Collective Reckoning of the New Global Economic Reality.” The main business program is divided into four thematic tracks: ‘Joining Forces to Advance Development’, ‘Delivering on National Development Targets’, ‘The Human Factor in Responding to Global Challenges’, and ‘New Technology Frontiers.’

According to the information presented on the website of the Roscongress Foundation, which is the organizer of the forum, intercountry dialogues will also be held on the sidelines of SPIEF with representatives of the business communities of Africa, Germany, Italy, Qatar, Latin America, North America, Finland, France, Sweden, and Japan, and the EAEU–ASEAN dialogue will take place. The SPIEF business program includes more than 130 expert discussions and covers a wide range of topics that aim to develop various areas of the economy.

“This year’s St. Petersburg International Economic Forum will be the first major business event following the forced pause in face-to-face events. We have provided support to the Forum’s foreign guests for unhindered entry into the Russian Federation. Representative delegations from numerous countries have confirmed they will attend. A significant part of the business programme is devoted to issues concerning international cooperation to advance development. Today, we have already found ourselves in a new reality in a changed world. Our job is to rebuild and to this end it is crucial to unite our efforts and build a dialogue both at the national and the international level,” Adviser to the Russian President and Executive Secretary of the SPIEF Organizing Committee Anton Kobyakov said.

Qatar is the guest country for SPIEF 2021. The Qatari delegation will be one of the largest in the history of the country’s participation in international economic forums; representatives of 50 Qatari organizations will come to the Forum in St. Petersburg. The SPIEF business program will feature discussions on the development of trade, economic, and cultural relations between Russia and Qatar. In addition, the Russia–Qatar Business Dialogue, a high-level discussion devoted to the further development of investment opportunities, will be held.

Foreign participants of SPIEF include: Total Chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanne, Wintershall Dea GmbH Chairman of the Board and CEO Mario Mehren, Siemens Energy AG President and CEO Christian Bruch, Huawei Eurasia President Daniel Zhou, WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge, World Energy Council Secretary General and CEO Angela Wilkinson, World Economic Forum President Borge Brende, and Qatar Financial Centre Authority CEO and Member of the Board of Directors Yusuf Mohamed Al-Jaida, among others.

Commenting on the upcoming event in St. Petersburg, Neil MacKinnon, Global Macro Strategist at VTB Capital, stressed that SPIEF has a long-standing good reputation.

“It has a long-standing reputation amongst international investors and top policymakers as a key event in the financial market calendar for discussing important topics for both the global and Russian economies,” the expert said.

According to Neil MacKinnon, the event is so important that even the online format of the forum due to the restrictions associated with COVID-19 would not detract from the significance of the event.

In addition, in his opinion, the economic situation in the world is gradually improving, and the topic of international cooperation is again acquiring special relevance.

“The picture for the global economy is much more positive than it was a year ago and the major economies have put in place supportive policy measures to overcome the impact of COVID-19 and ensure a transition back to pre-pandemic growth trends,” Neil MacKinnon added.

In turn, Philip Hanson, Emeritus Professor of the Political Economy of Russia and Eastern Europe, University of Birmingham, suggested that SPIEF this year will attract fewer Western participants than usual.

“This will apply to both virtual and in person participation formats. This is partly because virtual participation gives less opportunity for informal conversations but also because of the strained relations currently between Russia and the West,” the expert explained.

In his opinion, the main interest of SPIEF is the domestic discussion of economic policy.

“This could be of particular interest this year. There are tensions over the degree of austerity in macroeconomic policy – how will the budget rule be modified? And there are related tensions between business and government over how – and indeed whether – private investment can be increased. It would be characteristic of SPIEF 2021 if these topics were aired,” Philip Hanson added.

Evgeniya Voyko, Associate Professor of the department of political science at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, noted that SPIEF is a good opportunity to restart business activities.

“The Forum will allow attracting investors and finding partners, despite the restrictions due to the pandemic, which, of course, influence the event. So, not all foreign participants have the opportunity to come to SPIEF because of their domestic rules related to the pandemic, or because of their own psychological reasons – many decided not to risk it. In addition, there are certain limits and sanitary standards, the observance of which is one of the main conditions for the forum to take place,” the expert said.

According to her, the level of relations between the Russian Federation and the Western countries is now quite low, but this does not apply to all states.

“In particular, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz confirmed his participation in the forum. Austria kept neutrality and did not support the anti-Russian rhetoric that was voiced in Europe last month,” Evgeniya Voyko said, adding that for the Russian authorities, SPIEF would also be an excellent way to once again state their position on some international issues.

Meanwhile, Oleg Prozorov, Director General of the Belgian-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce in Russia, called St. Petersburg International Economic Forum the main platform for interaction between business, politics, government and the economy in the Eurasian space.

“We see the success of the forum this year in the fact that SPIEF will be the first international business event to be held [in person] after the COVID-19 pandemic,” Oleg Prozorov said.

“The Belgian-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce in Russia and its members pin their hopes and expect that the St. Petersburg Economic Forum will be the start of a new business season and open borders for the movement of the business community. We hope that the forum will demonstrate how international economic ties will develop further,” he said.

Christiane Schuchart, Regional Director, Russia, German Eastern Business Association, stressed that after a long break in face-to-face meetings, SPIEF will become an excellent platform for dialogue and views exchange, the need for which is long overdue.

“Existing relationships can also be maintained online, but establishing new contacts and relationships only through online formats is difficult and hardly possible in the long term,” she explained.

According to her, one of the important results of the SPIEF will be the agreements and contracts concluded between its participants.

“In addition to the urgently needed dialogue, a number of contracts will definitely be signed. We already know about some of the initiatives that the representatives of the German side must sign with their Russian partners,” said the Regional Director for Russia of the German Eastern Business Association.

“Thus, the forum provides an opportunity to maintain and develop a network of contacts, as well as continue activities and projects suspended since February 2020. We welcome the determination of the Russian government to resume holding the forum in person in June, despite the pandemic,” Christiane Schuchart concluded.

Source: https://penzanews.ru/en/analysis/67127-2021

#spief #covid-19 #st petersburg international economic forum

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leofemt · 6 years

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car game

Wright hesitates. His eyes jerk from Edgeworth's face to somewhere past his head and back again. His lips tense.

"Thank you, Edgeworth." He says, finally, and Edgeworth stiffens barely. "You... really saved me in there."

post aa2-epilogue narumitsu/wrightworth, 1.6k words.

on ao3.

"Mr. Edgeworth!" The young girl- and Edgeworth could have sworn she had been much taller only an hour ago- chirps, smiling. Edgeworth jerks imperceptibly. "You have to come too!"

They've been talking about spending the rest of the night at the Gatewater, Edgeworth recalls, and he shakes himself back into reality. His head is still racing from the adrenaline of the case.

("Wright!" He had shouted, all but rushing up to the man, breathless in his- he is loathe to call it eagerness- to tell him the good news-)

"Ah." He says, looking down at the exuberant young girl. Pearls, if he recalled. "I- If I must, I suppose."

Maya beams at him. He watches Wright embrace her again, Pearls wriggling her way between them, and wonders if he should have not excused himself when Franziska had stormed off, with the convenient excuse of following his sister. Wright is- happy. In the courtroom, perhaps, he is allowed by the bar separating them to stand across from the man, to take his attention and challenge him, but here? Edgeworth has no jurisdiction here. He is made acutely aware of the fact. He may be the man's rival, but Maya and Pearl are the ones who stand beside him when Edgeworth challenges him. This is a happiness that Wright has carved for himself with his own two hands, and something he would lay down his life to protect, and Edgeworth has no right to intervene.

"Mr. Edgeworth," Maya says, sidling up to him as they begin to make their way to the door, "you look a lot better than when I saw you last time."

"Yes, well." Edgeworth replies, eyes flicking down to Maya's warm expression and back to somewhere around his feet. "Last time you saw me, I was in a rather bad way, so it's to be expected."

Maya loops her arm through his, a casual motion that almost makes Edgeworth freeze mid-stride.

"You should have made Franziska stay, she could have come to eat too," Maya continues, seemingly oblivious to the strangeness of her actions, "is it true she's mad at herself right now? And she gave Nick her whip, too."

"A-ah." Edgeworth forces himself to keep walking. "Right. I believe she, too, will experience something of a period of... self-reflection."

Maya smiles. She hums. There's a bounce in her step that seems wholly unnatural for someone who has been kept prisoner and starved by a professional assassin for two days, but of Edgeworth has learned anything in his time working in this particular region's legal system, it is that they Fey family surpasses all expectations and, sometimes, human limits.

Losing himself in thought for a moment, he snorts a quiet laugh. Maya looks up at him in shock.

"You laughed!" She exclaims, her grin somehow widening. "Mr. Edgeworth, you laughed!"

"I-" Edgeworth hurridly schools his expression into something he hopes is neutral. Maya is still pulling him towards the door. Ahead of them, Wright and Pearls are chattering about something, the stress of the case seeming to have lifted from Wright's shoulders with Maya's return.

"You look less scary when you laugh," Maya chuckles, and Edgeworth can't even find it in himself to chastise her. She has, after all, just been rescued from a situation that might have broken anyone else.

He can't even deny her when it turns out that she's been leading them to his car the whole time.

"Nick can't drive," she insists, "and shotgun!"

Edgeworth sighs and unlocks his car. Maya jumps in the passenger side seat, and Wright and Pearls cram into the backseat. His bright red car is filled with the sound of the engine rumbling and the energetic chatter that seems to follow these people, and he refuses to take the vehicle out of park until everyone puts on their seatbelts, and tamps down their protestations with a severe folding of his arms and a furrow of his eyebrows, and tries not to get used to the warm feeling in his chest, because it won't last.

~~~~~~

Edgeworth skids into a space at the Gatewater hotel, slamming on the breaks. Maya whoops. Wright looks about ready to launch himself out of the car.

"Mr. Edgeworth, you're such a good driver!" Pearls offers, beaming, and Edgeworth glances at her in the rearview mirror before inclining his head. Maya, Wright, and Pearls cluster together on the walk to the hotel's entrance, and if it weren't for the Fey's persistent attempts to drag him into conversation, one could mistaken them for two completely different parties who happened to be walking in the same direction.

Wright has not tried to engage him since their conversation at the hotel. Edgeworth can understand why, but that doesn't stop his chest from tightening.

People he recognizes arrive soon after- Gumshoe, who has met them at the hotel in a borrowed patrol car, the photographer with the large hair who Edgeworth remembers from the Gourd Lake case, the wild-looking man in the startlingly orange suit, a handful of others- he watches then approach Wright, watches Maya voraciously eat her first meal in two days, and feels particularly out of place.

"It is time I excused myself," he says, after staying an appropriate amount of time. "I still have some work to do at the Prosecutor's office."

"Aw, what?" Maya exclaims around a mouthful of food, a full plate in her hands. "Mr. Edgeworth, you're leaving already? You haven't even eaten anything!"

"I have to go," Edgeworth repeats, smiling slightly. It's fine if he can only have this. He gathers himself, prepared to leave the glittering warmth of the hall behind, when-

"Wait."

Wright speaks his first words to him of this part of the night.

Edgeworth turns.

"What?" He asks.

Wright hesitates. His eyes jerk from Edgeworth's face to somewhere past his head and back again. His lips tense.

"Thank you, Edgeworth." He says, finally, and Edgeworth stiffens barely. "You... really saved me in there."

Edgeworth's hand automatically grips his elbow- he looks away, unable to meet Wright's gaze. He knows Wright feels compelled to thank him, but he also knows he has damaged their relationship beyond repair- despite returning after a year, despite the overwhelming need to show that man the effect that he has had on the former Demon Prosecutor- to prove himself as a lawyer and as a person in Wright's eyes, because that had been the point of coming back to California, after all- he can never undo the harm he has done. Wright deserves something like this. The unfettered happiness and unquestioning support the Feys can give him. If the only place he can have in Phoenix's life is that of the fearsome rival, he will take it, because he deserves even less.

He wonders, for a moment, what it would have been like if he had not chosen death, that fateful night one year ago.

Maybe they would have drawn closer together, after that case. Maybe now, Wright would think of him as a close companion. A treasured childhood friend. A rival he can trust. A-

No. It's best to let that thought stray no further.

"If anyone should be thanking anyone," he says, instead of saying the thousand things that circle in his head like a pack of foxes chasing their own shadows, "it should be me thanking you. I was only doing my job."

An unreadable expression passes over Wright's face, like a shadow over a sun-soaked field, but after a moment he digs in his pocket and produces- Franziska's whip. He presses it into Edgeworth's hands.

"I mean it," that man says, "if it weren't for you- and for her-"

Edgeworth smiles. He knows what Wright is trying to say, and how Wright is trying to say it, and why he cannot, because Edgeworth has hurt him so badly and he has not recovered. He makes a note to call his sister, who is no doubt on the first plane back to Germany.

"That is the duty of the attorney, Mr. Wright," he replies. "Prosecutors and defense attorneys- our job is to seek the truth. Nothing more."

He takes the whip. He accepts Wright's sentiment.

"I had fun tonight," he says instead of anything else, the words feeling unfamiliar on his tongue. When was the last time he had fun? Three Signal Samurai keychains flash unbidden in his mind. "Now, if you'll excuse me..."

Edgeworth turns away. Whip in hand, he doesn't look back, misses Wright's eyes tracking his red-clad back all the way to the exit of the hall, only looking away when Pearls pulls on his sleeve and points worriedly at Maya, who is choking on a mini-slider.

~~~~~~

That night, Edgeworth pours himself a glass of red wine. He sits at his desk in his home and sips his drink. A red Signal Samurai keychain, carefully repainted where the original color has flaked off, lies coiled to the side of his drink coaster. The light from the streetlamp outside slants into the half-lit room through his window. Pess trots into the study, and whimpers and lays her head in his lap- he scratches her behind the ears, wonders if he should put on a Steel Samurai movie, allows himself to sit in contentment for a moment.

It's not true happiness- never before had he considered true happiness and satisfaction to be different concepts entirely, but now the knowledge sits heavy in his heart like a stone- but it's close enough, and more than he deserves, so he leans back in his chair a little more.

Days to come will provide more opportunities to take Wright on. In every case, Edgeworth resolves, he will prove himself to that man, as many times as it takes.

#narumitsu #ace attorney #phoenix wright #miles edgeworth #wrightworth #mine #my writing

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magnus-leo-long · 7 years

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Essay «Global citizenship and Cultural understanding»

In the age of Globalization when means of communication and computer technologies are developing rapidly, the quality of life and human population have increased greatly, social mobility has accelerated, the role and relevance of global citizenship and cultural understanding has also increased. People get closer to each other, although at the same time process of social atomism intensifies, too. In this essay I’ll try to explain the concepts of global citizenship and cultural understanding, to answer the current questions associated with them and to track the role of multilingual ability.

What is the global citizenship and why does its relevance increase?

Global citizenship, in my opinion, is priority identification one human with all humanity instead of nation, ethnicity or any other small (narrow or limited) social group. The process of globalization as an increasing of connections among people around the world and developing of means of communication has led to erosion of borders between states, cultures and even civilizations. Today people can observe what is happening not only in their own country but in the whole world: it would be local conflicts and national problems as well as global problems. Some of these people start to interest and to feel a part of problems and conflicts which are happened far away; they have concern for benefits of all mankind though it doesn’t always correlate with national (or state) interests. Right here the concept of global citizenship as the most stable form of state in our planet (world government, world-system), as the way to World peace and as the solution of global problems, is raised.

How can we come to global citizenship and what kind of obstacles do we meet on our way?

First of all, humanity should develop compassionate because it’s much easier to sympathize your relatives, your close people or your nation than to have concern for every person (!) in our common planet; it’s really onerous burden but this kind of perception really changes the prism through each of us looks at the world around. Next step, I suppose, is creation of mutual or universal language (ideally it would be some language of cognitive communication); of course, many people from different countries desire to make their culture and their language the most popular/demanded. We can and we should try to save our traditions in potential global state but we also should understand that there are really fundamental reasons to create a new culture, the culture of humanity which should be a priority. I think it is important. The third aspect is legal basis. We already have experience of creation of intergovernmental organization for international cooperation like The United Nation and relevant documents like Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I think we only need to learn to respect this kind of Lex and Jus. Now we have moved on to obstacles; I consider it would be enough to mention them: different “deep” resentments (I suppose it can be cured by individual psychotherapy), nationalism as political and socio-psychological phenomenon, tendency of people (especially in high developed countries) to comfort and security suffering detriment to other population, tendency of average person to simplification of global problems and reality, fear to lose individuality and identity in the scales of states, nations and regions…

What is the cultural understanding and what is the role of this concept?

From my point of view, cultural understanding is the desire and ability of human of one culture to accept and to grasp historic, ethnic, social and psychological views of human of foreign cultural group. We must cooperate regardless of our personal relationship especially if it is negative. Readiness to cooperate and understanding come to while we try to know and to study another culture, while we penetrate in another social environment. The excellent way to achieve a high level of cultural understanding is take the ability to talk in several foreign languages because when we study other languages (of course, if we do it in good faith) we penetrate in other culture so obligatory, we start to get involved in every aspects of foreigner’s lifestyles. I noticed it during my own studying of English and Japanese. In addition, knowledge of several languages increases the overall level of intelligence. We should also understand that we must behave in according with local traditions of a particular society ─ when in Rome do as the Romans do, ─ we should be interested in traditions of other country. If we start our interaction with negative attitude, we will not achieve peace and prosperity in our inner worlds as well as in outside world.

I’m sure that the best way for humanity to move towards the future is building a new world community or serious modernization of the previous. We must create new social norms and new legal traditions. I think the most acceptable legal institute which people can take as a basis is Human Rights and International laws. Global citizenship may exist only around/within the rights and freedoms of every person as priorities because only this way we can avoid the influence of interest groups and institutes like national states, for example. Multilingual ability is really interesting and important because it helps people come together. Cultural understanding is a way of resolving some problems that we can face. The most important battle will occur in people’s minds and I am afraid that our society is not ready to this battle. Humanity is too young to realize that life and freedom of every person are all that we really have.

Nowadays, the planet has prepared many challenges for us and some of them we create ourselves, for instance, global pollution, weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemic weapons, international terrorism and many others. It looks like test or challenge which must confirm or refute the right of humanity to exist, to live. I hope we will manage. As a result, we will create f new world, the better world. We need do two things: firstly, we should develop consciously, translationally, evenly and all-roundly, this is our way I suppose; secondly, we should be giving, because we can get in return when we share. © Magnus L. Long for the Many Languages, One World Essay Contest

#cultural_understanding #my_first_trying_to_write_the_real_essay_in_english #essay #attempt #thoughts #way_of_thinking #globalism #fist_time #seriousthughts #global_citizqnship

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yahooben · 7 years

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'Mass Effect: Andromeda' review: A sprawling space drama that struggles to stay on target

‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’ invites you to strap in for another space opera.

“Space is big,” beloved author and interdimensional traveler Douglass Adams noted in his seminal towel-seller, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” “You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big,” he wrote, hammering home the point that when it comes to bigness, even our new president has nothing on the universe.

That size presents quite a challenge to game makers, but few have hacked away at the quandary with as much gusto as developer Bioware. The team behind the blockbuster “Mass Effect” trilogy managed to capture the epic scope of the big unknown while keeping our eyes trained on the intimate interactions between characters, a space opera in its truest — and, in terms of video games, among its best — form. So when they announced a return to their beautifully realized universe with “Mass Effect: Andromeda” ($60 for Xbox One, PS4, PC), we all got very excited indeed.

But a great deal has happened since 2012’s “Mass Effect 3” simultaneously wowed and enraged gamers; namely, “The Witcher 3,” “Fallout 4,” Bioware’s own “Dragon Age: Inquisition” and a host of other genre-blending RPGs (you could arguably toss recent greats “Horizon: Zero Dawn” and “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” into that mix, too). Big-budget role-playing games have blossomed in the past five years.

‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’ has the makings of a great game, but misses the mark with a number of missteps.

And unfortunately, “Mass Effect: Andromeda” picked up some unwelcome visitors on its long journey to your gaming machine. Though it has some stellar moments, “Andromeda” tries to cram too many ideas into one package, turning its obsession with the bigness of space into a crutch for uncharacteristically shoddy workmanship.

The (next) final frontier

To answer your most obvious question: no, you do not need to have played the prior “Mass Effect” games to understand what the hell is happening here. “Andromeda” tells a self-contained story featuring entirely new characters, planets and star systems, though references to elements from the original trilogy (the Citadel, the Geth, Spectre, etc.) do occasionally pop up.

The game is set roughly 600 years after the events of the original trilogy. Just as things were heating up in the Milky Way (around the “Mass Effect 2” timeframe), several giant Ark ships were launched towards the faraway heart of the Andromeda galaxy. Snuggled in cryo beds and dreaming of a new life, the adventurous souls aboard these vessels were hoping to discover habitable new worlds and plant some flags.

‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’ sees you exploring the Andromeda galaxy for a new home. But – spoiler alert – things go very wrong.

Naturally, things go sideways. You play as either Scott or Sara Ryder, a twin thrust into the role of ‘Pathfinder’ and tasked with guiding a ragtag group of aliens in a quest to find a new home. It’s all pretty standard sci-fi stuff — a bite of “Star Trek,” a nibble of “Battlestar” — but Bioware crafts a well-told tale that rises above its derivative vibe to keep you, um, engaged throughout.

Mostly, that’s done though a tweaked version of the branching narrative structure Bioware is known for. Conversation options have expanded beyond the binary Paragon/Renegade of prior games, adding flexibility and giving you a bit more agency over your particular Ryder. Despite some nasty bad guys and extremely high stakes, it’s also significantly more lighthearted than the trilogy’s dour doomsday scenario. Regardless of how you play Ryder, he (or she) is quick to joke and seems intent on keeping the joy of discovery intact.

The dialogue system isn’t as thrilling as it used to be, however. Other franchises have taken the cue and built branching narratives with greater emotional value. “The Witcher 3,” “Life is Strange” — heck, the entire Telltale Games catalog (whose Season 1 of “The Walking Dead” bested “Mass Effect 3” in most 2012 Game of the Year Awards) have pushed the envelope of branching narrative design, making each choice feel impactful. Though your tone changes based on your responses in “Andromeda,” Ryder’s playful, at time snarky attitude takes some of the gravitas out of the decision-making. You rarely break a sweat.

‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’s’ dialogue system lacks the kind of gravitas that makes games like ‘The Witcher 3’ so addictive and powerful.

Still, developing relationships, opening/closing paths, trying to get busy with a blue lady — it’s all here, and thanks to an interesting story, likable characters and great voicework by both male and female Ryders, “Andromeda” does a convincing job of turning you into Captain Kirk.

A downright uncanny job, you might say.

Valley of the Dolls

Unless you’ve been avoiding the internet for the last week, you’ve likely caught wind that gamers are, to put it mildly, displeased with the “Andromeda’s” animations, particularly its facial close-ups. And, well, yeah, the facial animations aren’t great. The game doesn’t just glide over the uncanny valley, it builds a big space house and moves right in.

I typically don’t put too much stock in this; plenty of outstanding games are kind of ugly up close (I’m looking into your lifeless eyes, “Fallout 4”). What makes it so rough here is the amount of time you spend staring at close-ups. A good third of the game is spent chatting with people and developing relationships, but when they look like broken robots, it breaks the spell. About halfway through the game, my Ryder inexplicably developed two wicked lazy eyes that lasted for a good 10 hours.

‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’s’ human characters look like dead-eyed androids.

Perhaps the increased power of modern consoles/PCs (I played on PS4) is the culprit — as the theory goes, the closer you get to reality, the deeper the valley. But as ugly as it gets for humankind, the power leads to some amazing aliens. The brutish, dinosaur-like Krogans have never looked better, and jittery eyes and smooth skin give the amphibious Salerians incredible life. I relished every chance to chat with non-humans, both to bask in Bioware’s great work and as a respite from the mannequin onslaught.

This sort of uneven delivery extends to the rest of the game’s graphics. The art design is triumphant – Issac Asimov would commend the look and feel of the game’s colorful terrain, sweeping interstellar views and massive starships – but technical glitches abound. Flickering textures are common, load times are excessive and occasional pop-in mars the stunning planetside vistas. These sorts of glitches aren’t game-breaking, but they speak to a project struggling to bear its own weight.

Humans might not look good in ‘Mass Effect: Andromeda,’ but the aliens are gorgeous.

Galaxy quest

And make no mistake: “Andromeda’s” scope is massive.

Much of the game takes place on explorable planets that are significantly bigger than the regions found in “Dragon Age: Inquisition.” You can spend hours scouring the nooks and crannies of each location from the comfort of your Nomad rover. And as you find ways to make life more hospitable, the areas open up even further.

‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’s’ worlds are vast and beautiful.

A star map gives you free reign to explore the Heleus cluster of the Andromeda galaxy. You can only land on and explore a handful of planets, but you rarely feel hemmed in, and the desire to build outposts pushes you to approach Andromeda like a real pioneer. It’s a good hook.

But this goal is quickly buried beneath a ridiculous number of less essential Things to Do. Some are classic “Mass Effect” – your shipmates have needs, and if you want to unlock their highest-level abilities or get them into bed (perv), you’ll need to attend to those — but you pick up other, seemingly unwanted side quests with alarming ease.

Checking in on an outpost? Be careful who you talk to, because apparently every single life form in the galaxy is incapable of handling their own business. Even if they don’t have a gigantic exclamation point on their head, they’ll probably ask you to shuttle something somewhere or look into a mild, pointless drama. And you’ll feel pressed to track down every one, because you never know which insignificant-sounding rabbit hole will yield some legit XP or loot.

‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’ piles on the quests like every other RPG, but organizes them poorly.

This is fairly common to RPGs, but “Andromeda’s” flood of quests is compounded by terrible quest tracking. A Journal ostensibly keeps tabs on them, but inexplicably lists them based on where you picked them up rather than where they are located in the world. It’s a crazy way to organize quests; land on a planet and you’ll have to either scour dots on the map or rummage through your Journal to figure out what, if anything, you’re supposed to do there.

This alone drove me nuts. I may be a real-world organizational disaster (I am a writer, after all) but this is definitely a trait I don’t want to carry into my sci-fi power fantasy.

Laser tag

On the other hand, I did get to carry lots of guns. And this is one area where “Andromeda” really fixes something.

The game does a fine job of improving and even amping up “Mass Effect’s” combat. Jump jets and a handy dash make you far more maneuverable, which is a boon since you contend with enemies in open-world locations. Skills and proficiencies can totally alter the way you play. Focus on Combat to be a Rambo, invest in Biotics to be a Jedi, stick with Tech to hurl fire and ice, or spread the wealth and be a bit of each. Deep but approachable, the system serves as a solid backend for the on-the-field action.

If there’s one thing Bioware improved for ‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’ it’s the game’s combat.

I forgot exactly how shooty “Mass Effect” was, and once you get used to the fact that you’re not playing a game quite as refined as the “Halos” and “Horizons” it attempts to ape, it falls into a pleasant rhythm. Nice touches abound, like jumping and pausing in the air for a few seconds while aiming down your sights. Experimenting with different abilities is also a snap thanks to a handy respec option, quelling the FOMO that rules most games that force to to stick with one class. It’s flexible and fun. Bioware upped their game here, for sure.

But it isn’t perfect. The wide-open universe only yields a handful of enemy types, and none of them are particularly exciting. You have little control over your two fellow squadmates, and the weak enemy A.I. means you never need to think strategically when deciding which companions to bring into battle. I mostly stuck with the Krogan warrior because he looks cool. A baffling “auto” cover system claims that you just need to move close to an object with your gun drawn to hide behind it, but it doesn’t work very well. It just ends up getting you shot a lot, even when you think you’re safe.

You want jump jets? You’ve got jump jets.

Systems overload

“Andromeda” just doesn’t know when to quit, layering on screen after screen and system after system to make even the simplest task, like equipping a hot new weapon, painstaking.

Find a gun? You’ll need to head back up to your ship or find a “forward station” to switch your loadout, because, well, who knows. Tiny, uniform iconography turns inventory management into a slog. You know the thrill of finding and ogling a gorgeous, exciting new rifle in “Destiny?” That ain’t here.

Scanning planets for resources takes forever due to pretty but infuriatingly slow pans and zooms. Tracking down a specific resource to, for instance, craft a new helmet, is a total crapshoot. Bioware’s focus on the big picture has left a surprising number of holes in its basic RPG foundation.

They even tossed in co-op multiplayer, because it’s 2017 and I think that’s required by law now. “Mass Effect 3” toyed with this and it returns largely unchanged, as you and some pals clear out waves of increasingly stubborn baddies. It’s got its own progression system and offers a decent break from the RPG slog, though considering the core game could take a good 80 hours to complete, I’m not sure anyone needs it.

So do they need “Mass Effect: Andromeda” at all? That’s a tough call. A cool game is buried beneath “Andromeda’s” issues. When the guns are on point and you’ve exploded a Biotic combo, or when the ramifications of some difficult choice made hours ago comes back to haunt you, “Mass Effect: Andromeda” scratches that old space itch. But getting past the technical gaffes and unfriendly interface requires a great deal of patience. Space is big, indeed, but it’s supposed to be fun, too.

Platform reviewed: PS4

What’s hot: Cool story; outpost settling is a good hook; improved maneuverability; deep combat options

What’s not: Technical issues; aggravating interface; seriously uncanny valley; quest quantity over quality; dated feel

More games coverage:

‘Middle-earth: Shadow of War’ lets you lead orcish armies — and destroy them

Nintendo Switch launch games: The must-haves, the maybes and the probably nots

‘For Honor’ review: You’ll need skill to survive this online fighter

‘Horizon: Zero Dawn’ Review: Combat and storytelling shine in spectacular sci-fi epic

The $450 Analogue Nt mini brings new life to old-school NES games

‘Resident Evil 7’ review: It’s a screaming good time

Ben Silverman is on Twitter at ben_silverman.

#gaming #_revsp:yahoofinance.com #Mass Effect #games reviews #_author:Ben Silverman #Mass Effect: Andromeda #video game reviews #Mass Effect: Andromeda review #_lmsid:a077000000BAh3wAAD #reviews #game reviews #_uuid:c94944b9-14e5-3c4f-83e6-5d5367276538 #video games

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strifescloud · 7 years

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from the beat of my heart (to the tips of my fingers) queerplatonic noctis/ignis/prompto/gladio 4.5k words

He can hear the others join them around the fire, taking their usual seats as though it were just another night. It feels normal, feels like them, but even just knowing that they have taken the first steps to being more is enough to fill Noctis with joy, and he finds that he cannot keep the smile from his face.

[or, how Noctis learned to talk about his feelings and the boys all got three partners in the process]

(read on ao3)

Noctis cannot sleep.

Streams of moonlight filter in through the half-closed curtains, dimly illuminating the interior of their run-down motel room, so when he reaches resignedly for his phone he winces not from the harsh backlight but from the time that blinks cheerily at him from the screen.

It’s three in the damn morning, and Noctis still cannot sleep, though not for lack of trying. They had been run ragged the whole day, tracking some nuisance of a beast across the harsh landscapes of the more remote regions of Leide, and Noctis had been so very certain that, as usual, he would have fallen asleep the second his head touched the pillows.

He can hear Prompto shuffling about restlessly in his sleep, energetic even at rest, and can just make out the silhouette of Ignis’s sleeping figure across the room. He spends another moment to wish that he could have fallen asleep as easily as they seemed to. He can’t hear Gladio, which was unusual, but his affinity for the outdoors was their main guiding force on the previous day’s hunt and Noctis wouldn’t be surprised if he was simply too deep in sleep to even snore.

No point lying here moping about it, he thinks wryly, sitting upright with a resigned sigh. The night air is just cool enough to make him grab his jacket as he slides out of bed, and he quietly puts it on before slipping out onto the tiny balcony. He leans on the railing and watches the night sky, the stars beautifully clear this far from Insomnia.

There is about a minute of quiet stillness before Gladio leans on the railing next to him.

“Rough day, huh?” Silence stretches further between them, Noctis’ eyes fixed on the sky above. “Thought you’d be dead asleep by now.”

“I thought you were asleep.”

“Hard to sleep with you tossin’ and turnin’ all night. What’s up?”

Noctis doesn’t turn his head, caught somewhere between unable and unwilling to answer despite the vague reassurances that seek to claw their way out of his throat. To dismiss his sleepless nights as inconsequential would be a lie, and he cannot bring himself to do so under the judging gaze of the stars.

“Hey,” Gladio nudges him with his elbow, bringing him out of his thoughts again, “seriously, what’s eating you?”

He could easily pull away from the touch, play off the concern as unwarranted, but even as he opens his mouth to speak his body stays still, eyes flitting upwards to Gladio’s face.

“Nothing,” he replies immediately, but stumbles over the reflexive answer when Gladio’s stare sharpens almost imperceptibly, “I mean, uh, I don’t-“

“Noct.”

“I don’t know, everything, I guess.” Gladio nods, leaning closer still, the warmth of his arm against Noctis’ a comfort against the cool night air.

“Pretty big difference between nothing and everything,” he prompts, but he turns his gaze away, watching a lone car slowly pass through the quiet outpost. Giving me a way out, Noctis thinks, affection rising in his chest even as he considers taking the opportunity.

“Yeah,” he breathes instead, hands tightening around each other.

He wants to talk, is the thing. Gladio is ever the King’s Shield in more ways than one, and his presence almost makes Noctis feel strong enough to voice his fears, if only he knew how. He opens his mouth, feels himself choke on the words, the weight of his anxieties too heavy for them to escape his chest.

“I don’t- it’s so much,” he tries, and Gladio’s eyes dart back to his with a flash of understanding.

“You don’t have to talk about it now. Or ever, if you want,” and though Noctis moves again to protest Gladio continues, “but if you do, just let me know. Or Iggy, or Prompto – all three of us are here for you, Noct. Whatever you want.”

Noctis nods mutely as Gladio claps him firmly on the shoulder, a slight smile tugging at his lips.

“Get some sleep, okay, Prince? Can’t have you falling asleep in a fight or something – it’s hard work bailing your ass out.”

“Bailing me out?” Noctis replies indignantly, an answering grin forming as Gladio steps away, “Who saved your ass from those Shieldshears yesterday?”

Gladio laughs again as he slips back inside the hotel room, leaving Noctis on the balcony alone, the warmth fading from his arm.

The thing is, Noctis doesn’t entirely know what he wants.

The though catches him between naps in the Regalia and he finds himself unable to let it go, turning it over again and again in his mind.

He wants to get to Altissia, to see Luna again, to take his revenge upon Nifleheim for the destruction of Insomnia – of this much, he remains certain.

He thinks of marrying Luna and his mind skitters away from the thought, all too aware of what the reality of marriage means for someone like him. He’s not a stranger to the idea of romance – countless people of all genders had tried their best to catch the eye of the crown prince of Lucis – but he’d never had any interest in reciprocating. Something about it had always seemed off, like inserting himself into the wrong role in a play where everyone but him knew the lines.

And yet, he thinks, and yet, because his thoughts skip back again and again - to Gladio’s arm against his, presence steady as a rock, to Ignis’s gentle touch as he awakens Noctis in the mornings, to Prompto’s hand pulling him up after a long battle – and though it’s not the same he wonders, always wonders, because his heart knows it feels more than friendship for the three men who have stayed by his side but it does not call them brother.

He wonders if there is a word for something that’s neither friendship nor romance, but somewhere undefinably between.

Noctis shifts slightly in his seat, keeping his eyes closed as he feigns sleep. The wind rushing past his ears as the Regalia accelerates drowns out most of the quiet conversation between Ignis and Prompto in the front, but the tone of indulgent amusement in Ignis’s voice is as familiar as breathing and he feels it soothe his turbulent thoughts even as the words remain indistinct.

He shifts again, moving his weight until he leans against Gladio’s shoulder, still pretending to be deep in sleep - part of him curious as to what Gladio will do. He hears the shuffling of paper as Gladio turns another page in his book, the shoulder beneath his cheek shifting, Gladio simply turning his body to make Noctis more comfortable without a word, and Noctis feels another swell of affection rise in his chest.

He feels safe in this moment, in the Regalia with the three men he cares for (loves, maybe, possibly) most in the world, and he allows himself to go back to sleep.

There is no awkwardness when he is shaken awake, sleep-fogged eyes making out glow of runes that mark a Haven, but the look Ignis gives him is far too knowing and Noctis feels heat rise to his cheeks nevertheless. The feeling fades as they set up camp, settling into a now-familiar routine, but he doesn’t miss the further glances Ignis sends across the campfire, nor Gladio whispering something into his ear as the looks grow lengthier with the darkening of the sky.

It’s not that he thinks they’ll outright say no if he asks him about it.

He still just doesn’t know what it is, and if he tries to explain it he’ll most likely make a fool out of himself, and there’s a persistent voice in the back of his mind that insists that to give them this, one more burden of his to bear, would be selfish.

It is louder at night, with the other three fast asleep beside him in the tent, unable to be drowned out by their voices. While he knows they do not only follow him out of duty, he cannot shake the feeling that to ask them this, as their Prince – to form some kind of relationship that he still cannot define with not just one, but all three of them – would be more than unfair.

He sleeps fitfully that night.

Noctis wakes to the sound of three familiar voices, the sunlight that streams through the tent just bright enough to make him wince as he opens his eyes. Though his limbs feel weighed down by his lack of restful sleep the smell of Ignis’s cooking is enough to drag him out of the tent, blinking his eyes blearily.

Ignis and Gladio stand over the portable stove, heads bent together as they talk, though both look up as Noctis emerges.

“Good morning, Noct.” Ignis greets with a small smile, turning back to his cooking. Gladio’s stare lingers slightly longer, but he too bends back towards Ignis, picking their conversation back up.

“Oh, Noct!” Prompto looks up from where he’d been taking pictures of the horizon, swinging his camera towards Noctis and snapping a photo before he had time to react.

“Hey!” Noctis scowls, reaching up immediately to try and fix his hair before Prompto had another chance.

“Morning! Oh man, you look like an angry bird, all puffed up like that,” Prompto teases, dancing out of the way as Noctis takes a half-hearted swipe towards the camera. Ignis wanders over from the stove, peering over Prompto’s shoulder at the camera screen.

“Indeed, it’s remarkable how little some things change with time.” Ignis adds, retreating from Noctis’s narrowing stare back towards the stove.

“I do not look like a bird,” he grumbles, dropping himself heavily in one of the camping chairs as he yawns. He stretches his legs out in front of him, nearly tripping Gladio as he takes his own seat.

“I don’t know, between you and Prompto-“ Gladio says, taking a bowl from Ignis’s hand.

“We could drop you at the Chocobo post if you’d like. Birds of a feather do flock together.” Ignis interjects, hiding his smirk by turning back towards the stove.

Noctis hears Prompto protest but tunes out the words, overwhelmed by the feeling that he is being ridiculous. He is not a Prince here, surrounded by subjects – merely a man among equals, the closest companions he could ever ask for, and he should be able to tell them anything, right?

Yet uncertainty stays his tongue, the thought of discussing his own turbulent feelings too heavy for the light-heartedness of the morning, and he feels the façade of control he has worn for years slip around his shoulders almost against his will. He holds it close for the rest of the day, uses it to shield him from their concerns like a shroud, slipping into normalcy as though he has never left. He cloaks himself in it each morning after that just as he pulls on his jacket, falling into step with the other three with nothing amiss.

It is easier during the day, when the anxious whispers in his mind can be drowned out by the voices of his companions. At night, when the only sound in the tent is the rhythm of breath in the cold air, his fears come crawling back as if they had never been silenced. He imagines their bitter clamouring to be the cause of the ringing in his ears, though he knows it is merely the effect of silence when his days are filled with vibrant noise and chatter.

He imagines, sometimes, that he can feel the phantom sensation of a crown around his temples.

Noctis, curled in the corner of the tent with his back to the wall, wishes in that instant that he was brave enough to cross the scant inches that divide him and Ignis, to seek the kind of comfort he thinks might quiet his mind enough to sleep. More so, he wishes one of them would suddenly wake, that they would understand what he fears without Noctis having to give it the weight of his voice.

Neither comes to pass. He closes his eyes, listens to them breathe, and does not sleep.

It is in a muggy motel room in Old Lestallum that something, finally, breaks.

Noctis stretches out on the rickety hotel bed, hearing the springs creak under his weight as he stares blankly at the ceiling, watching the fan slowly rotate. Ignis and Gladio are out buying supplies so the only sound is the faint music from Prompto’s phone, the familiar noises of King’s Knight an oddly soothing backdrop to his whirling thoughts.

“Hey, Noct,” Prompto begins, startling Noctis out of his introspection, “can I talk to you about something?”

Noctis tilts his head slightly, not enough to see Prompto’s face but enough to see his fingers curled so tightly around each other that the flesh is white beneath the pressure. Prompto’s phone lies discarded on the bed, pause screen blinking idly, and the whirring of the fan motor above them abruptly seems too loud in his ears.

“Sure, what’s up?” Noctis tilts his head back to stare at the ceiling, but doesn’t move.

“Well I mean, what’s up with you?” Noctis blinks slowly, unresponsive, “This whole thing is…beyond hard for you, I know that, but lately it seems like you’ve got something on your mind – and I know I’m not like, royal advisor or anything like the others, but,” He can hear Prompto take a steadying breath, “if you just wanna talk about it, I can do that. Listen. If you want.”

If the slight quaver in Prompto’s voice wasn’t enough, the sincerity that shines bright as the sun brings a hollow ache to Noctis’s chest – by the Astrals, he loves him, even if he’s not sure how. He opens his mouth to speak, taking a deep breath but releasing it again almost immediately, at a loss as to where to begin.

The springs beneath him creak again as Prompto sits beside him, just out of his vision. He feels a flash of anxiety, keeps it in control only by reminding himself that Prompto came not out of duty, but by choice – here for Noctis, not the Crown.

“Noct.” He says solemnly, and it breaks.

Words spill forth from Noctis’s mouth almost faster than he can process them. He talks first about Insomnia, about his father and Clarus and everyone else they knew whose deaths have yet to sink in. He talks about how sometimes he wakes up and doesn’t remember what happened and it’s like tearing the wound open all over again when he realizes. Prompto remains silent through it all, and Noctis continues.

He talks about Luna, how he’s not sure he even wants to marry her but there’s no turning back now – that he’s never loved anyone the way he’s meant to, and she will likely be no different.

Finally, he talks about the four of them. He says they might be more than friends if they gave it a chance, but not lovers, screwing up his face at the word and hearing Prompto laugh near-silently at the expression. There’s a feeling he cannot describe - he doesn’t know what it is, but it’s both enough and more than he could have asked for, sometimes more than he thinks he deserves.

He tells him how much he worries, sometimes, that they see him as the Crown Prince before Noctis. The shadow cast by the throne looms over him and he feels the fear choking him at night until he can’t breathe, can’t bring himself to ever ask.

He runs out of words. Prompto remains silent for a long moment.

“That’s good,” Prompto says, and Noctis feels his chest seize in confusion and anxiety, mouth dry.

“Good?” He asks cautiously.

“I thought I was the only one who felt that way.”

The statement is so unexpected that Noctis has to turn, twisting around to look Prompto in the eyes. Prompto’s expression is one of unbridled affection as he reaches out, taking Noctis’s hand in his own and squeezing tightly.

“This is okay, right?” He asks quietly, eyes searching Noctis’s face for any sign of discomfort.

“Yeah,” Noctis replies, feeling a smile form as a weight lifts off his shoulders, “more than okay.”

“Good, that’s good, we can uh,” Prompto’s voice quavers again but it’s with an edge of giddiness rather than nerves, so Noctis lets it pass without comment, “we can talk about what we’re okay with, right? So if I do something and you’re uncomfortable with it, just say so and we can figure it out! And I’ll do the same if I’m not cool with something.”

“What does that make us, then?” It’s not a relationship yet, but Noctis’s heart is racing ahead of him, urged onwards by the warmth of Prompto’s hand around his own.

“Partners, I guess. Or if you want to call us something different, or not call it something at all, that’s cool too. New stuff always needs some figuring out.”

“What about partners in crime?”

“You got it!” Prompto’s laugh is infectious, warming Noctis down to his bones, chasing away the shadows creeping at the corners of his mind.

His anxieties come rushing back when Prompto suddenly sobers, looking him in the eye once again.

“Are you gonna talk to Ignis and Gladio?”

Noctis swallows, turning his gaze downwards.

“I know it…it’s big, man. It’s big, and it’s scary and you think it’s gonna ruin everything, and it terrifies me too ‘cause,” Prompto swallows, face remaining solemn, “I guess, if you can’t even be sure, what chance do I have?” Noctis sits up at that, desperate to offer reassurance because he knows these fears Prompto carries, remembers a cold night on a darkened hotel roof.

“But,” Prompto continues before Noctis can interject, “I… I think you should! I mean, eventually, you have to have that conversation, right? And even though it’s terrifying as shit, I can talk to them first if you want. For me as well as you, but you’d have to talk to them yourself afterwards.”

It’s a tempting offer, and Noctis finds himself nodding minutely before he’s even thought it through.

“What do you think?” It’s a loaded question, but Noctis needs to know.

“I think they’re amazing – just like you are.” It catches Noctis off guard, lifting his darkened mood once again as his smile returns to match the one on Prompto’s face. “And the way I see it, I thought I was the only one, right? I bet they both think that as well, and they’re not gonna say anything either unless one of us does first.”

It’s optimistic, Noctis thinks, but he wants to believe so badly that the world could be as perfect as the picture Prompto’s words are painting.

“Give me a few days to think about it, okay?” He says finally, both unwilling and unable to say no but far from brave enough to agree. It still brightens Prompto’s smile, their hands locked around each other, and Noctis feels another piece of his resistance crumble away.

If the other two notice their newfound closeness, it is never mentioned. They spend the next few days out on the road chasing hunts, only managing to collapse into a hotel bed once or twice due to an influx of nocturnal threats. Noctis snatches moments with Prompto where he can, though the larger conversation that looms in their future will take more time than they have between hunts.

Though their days are long and his limbs ache from the exertion, the feeling fades every time he catches Prompto’s hand in his own, sharing a commiserating look as they trek through the harsh landscapes, a swell of true happiness within his chest.

It is incomplete without the others, he knows – his resolve strengthens with every day, and he can see the same feeling reflected in Prompto’s eyes.

Even so, when there is finally a night where they can truly rest, camped out under the stars, he’s not sure he’s ready. He meets Prompto’s gaze while the others are distracted, sees the thread of steel within them as Prompto gives him a nod. He watches the blonde hair as it walks purposefully across the camp but does not follow, choosing instead to slip down the hillside, path illuminated by the setting sun.

He finds a small jetty that juts out from the side of a nearby lake, the water’s peaceful surface broken only by the darting of the fish that swim just beneath. He casts his fishing line out into the water, trying to clear his head, and waits.

It is at least an hour before he hears the sound of branches cracking under boots.

“Hey, Gladio.” He says, still staring out to the lake.

“Hey.” Gladio replies, footsteps coming to a halt.

Noctis lets the silence stretch between them, though he reels in his line, dismissing his rod into a shimmer of blue light. They are building towards something, but it will be up to Gladio to make the final step – if Noctis pushes too hard, it may break.

“Prompto came and talked to us. Said it was for you as well, but I’d rather hear it straight from you.”

Noctis makes a noncommittal noise in response, but when Gladio doesn’t continue he turns, not quite towards him but no longer facing the still water.

“Everything he said was…yeah. I, uh,” he swallows, fingers trembling slightly, “I feel the same way.” He finishes the sentence in a rush, words half mumbled, though Gladio seems to hear them nevertheless.

He can feel Gladio’s eyes resting heavily on him.

“And you were afraid.” Gladio says, tone neutral. Noctis lets out a nervous laugh.

“And I was afraid.” He agrees.

Gladio’s footsteps grow closer, coming to a halt just in front of him. He feels Gladio’s hand come to rest on his shoulder, thumb moving soothingly back and forth on his upper arm and still Noctis doesn’t look up, hand clenching into a fist.

“Everything I say carries the weight of the Crown.” He repeats his father’s old adage dully, as if by rote. “How could I…how could I ask you that, as your prince, and know without doubt that your answer wasn’t influenced by your duty?”

He looks up at last as he releases the tension in his hand, bringing it up to cradle Gladio’s face and tracing his thumb across the scar that travels down his cheek, remembering all too vividly how it was gained.

“You already do so much for me, I don’t-“ He hesitates, unsure of how to continue but not taking his eyes away.

“This isn’t something I’d do for you,” Gladio interrupts, his own hand grasping Noctis’s and taking it away from his face, keeping it still between them, “it’s something I want to share with you. And Ignis, and Prompto – we can make this work. We can.” His conviction is near-tangible, as solid as the shield he wields, and Noctis finds himself stepping closer, his own will strengthened by it.

“Okay,” he whispers, “okay. We can.”

Gladio reaches out and pulls him into an embrace, wrapping warm arms around his shoulders just as Noctis’s wind around his waist, and there they stay for a long, perfect moment.

There’s so much more for them to talk about but he lets himself be led, hand still joined with Gladio’s back through the darkening forest to their camp. Prompto is nowhere to be seen and he feels Gladio push him forward, towards where Ignis sits alone by the fire.

“Iggy and I have already talked. I think it’s your turn.” Gladio murmurs as he backs away, presumably towards the tent. Noctis continues forward, slumping in the chair to Ignis’s right with a slight sigh.

“I presume you’ve sorted things out then.” Ignis says in lieu of a greeting, taking a long sip of his drink, and though his tone is impartial Noctis winces internally. He has known Ignis the longest of all of them. It seems wrong in many ways for him to have this conversation last, and he wonders if Ignis is hurt by his inaction.

“I’m sorry, Ignis, I-“

“Ah, forgive me,” Ignis interrupts, tone still even, “perhaps I phrased that improperly – I had been wondering for a few weeks if you were gathering the courage to speak up, and it seems that you finally have.” He sets his drink to the side, folding his hands in his lap.

“A few- wh- you knew?”

“Of course I did.” Ignis’s smile is faint but genuine as he looks up at Noctis, eyes sparking with subtle amusement. “Gladio and I have been discussing it for a while now – since before you ever talked to Prompto, I’d wager. I thought, given your propensity for forgetting that our relationship with you takes priority over our duty to the Crown, that it would be best to leave you to figure it out on your own.”

Ignis lays it all out for him, just like that, and Noctis finds himself staring wordlessly in mild disbelief. Ignis’s smile widens, expression inexpressibly fond as he reaches out to cup Noctis’s face.

“You foolish, wonderful man,” Ignis says quietly, “as if I’d say anything except yes.”

He leans forward to press a gentle kiss to Noctis’s forehead, the gesture so tender that it brings an ache to his chest, and as he pulls backwards Noctis finds himself leaning forward to chase the feeling. He gathers Ignis’s gloved hands up in his own, running his thumb across the back of the knuckles gently as he talks.

“Maybe it’s silly to ask this now, but,” Noctis tries to mask the quaver in his voice, though judging by Ignis’s face he doesn’t completely succeed, “you don’t think I’m being selfish, do you?”

“I don’t think it’s selfish to love others, nor to accept that love in return.” Ignis replies, voice still quiet. “Nor is it selfish for the four of us to be together, in whatever way we are comfortable with, so long as we are forthcoming with each other.” He gives Noctis’s hands a tight squeeze at that, though it is a gesture made in good humour, and Noctis feels the final weight lift from his shoulders.

He can hear the others join them around the fire, taking their usual seats as though it were just another night. It feels normal, feels like them, but even the simple act of knowing that they have taken the first steps to being more is enough to fill Noctis with joy, and he finds that he cannot keep the smile from his face.

They fall into the tent that night in a pile of limbs – Prompto somewhere under one of Gladio’s arms with Noctis under the other, Ignis pressed against his back – and though he knows that they will be far too warm in this weather he doesn’t offer a word of protest.

He lies there, listening to them breathe, and thinks I love them, I love them, the thought overwhelming him until he voices it aloud.

He feels a hand find his in the dark (Prompto’s, he thinks), hears Gladio rumble ‘we love you too’ from just above his head, nearly drowning out Ignis’s exasperated ‘go to sleep, Noct’.

It’s perfect.

Noctis closes his eyes and sleeps.

#ffxv #strife writes #noctis lucis caelum #chocobros #polyship roadtrip #THATS THE TAG FOR THIS RIGHT?????? IM SO OUT OF THE LOOP #anyway enjoy the boys. love these boys very much

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mikemortgage · 5 years

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Innovation Nation: Why Canada should engage the Indo-Pacific as it pushes its innovation agenda

Canada has a rich history of innovation, but in the next few decades, powerful technological forces will transform the global economy. Large multinational companies have jumped out to a headstart in the race to succeed, and Canada runs the risk of falling behind. At stake is nothing less than our prosperity and economic well-being. The Financial Post set out explore what is needed for businesses to flourish and grow. You can find all of our coverage here.

As a country bordering three of the world’s five major oceans, Canada naturally adopts a global outlook in its foreign and economic policies, but it has yet to incorporate recent changes in the trans-Pacific neighbourhood, from the Asia-Pacific to the Indo-Pacific. It is time for Canada to reset its vision.

The Indo-Pacific was conceived by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a 2007 speech, where he described the idea as “a dynamic coupling as seas of freedom and of prosperity.” The geopolitical concept of deep interlinkage between the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean has gained much currency in the past decade, with proponents such as Japan, the United States, Australia and India believing the littoral nations should avoid using force or coercion to resolve their disputes. They also favour regional connectivity projects as long as these are transparent, sustainable — both environmentally and financially — and respectful of national sovereignty.

The 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are well on their way to adopting the Indo-Pacific vision, under a determined diplomatic initiative launched by Indonesian President Joko Widodo. A recent visit to the region confirmed to me that even Indo-Pacific skeptics such as the Philippines and Cambodia are now inclined to be more responsive. Acceptance by Canada, an Indo-Pacific nation, will thus be in line with the changing times and should also improve the prospects of achieving its twin agendas of having free-trade agreements with both the ASEAN and India.

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India has supported the intertwining of security and development challenges in the Indo-Pacific region. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific has won new adherents. At the Shangri-La Dialogue last June, he saw the Indo-Pacific as “a natural region” and insisted that India’s vision for it is “a positive one.” He also added that “India does not see the Indo-Pacific Region as a strategy or a club of limited members.” Once Ottawa shares this vision, it will serve as a new ballast for progress in Canada-India relations.

Canada, India and the ASEAN need to embark on a trilateral dialogue on what the Indo-Pacific stands for in terms of political, security, strategic and economic domains, and how a close convergence of policies can strengthen the security and prosperity of the region, currently mired in the strategic rivalry between the U.S. and China.

Happily, the first shot has already been fired. India and Canada held a substantive session of Track 1.5 dialogue (involving officials and non-officials) in Ottawa last October. It was piloted by the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Ont., and Gateway House in Mumbai, India. The two think tanks are drawing up an ambitious agenda covering innovative issues such as cybersecurity, climate change, energy and trade in services. By situating future discussions within a framework of the region’s changing geopolitics that revolves around the Indo-Pacific, the two sides will begin to speak in the idiom of the 21st century, thus helping advance each other’s innovation agenda.

This will ensure that Canada draws greater attention from India’s policy and business community. It will promote Canada’s commercial interests as India is among the world’s fastest-growing economies and a consistently rising power. On the other hand, India, too, needs to take more interest in what Canada says and does, because the latter’s talent for innovation, technology and capital resources can accelerate the pace of India’s development if wisely deployed. In short, the two nations are well-advised to rise above the old colonial, Commonwealth, through-the-Europe mindset, updating and enriching it with the new Indo-Pacific dimension.

Aside from closer ties with India and the ASEAN, adhering to the Indo-Pacific vision will put Canada on the same page as the U.S., Australia and Japan in the Asian theatre. Japan, as a vital pillar of Canada’s Asia policy, will happily welcome a Canadian touch and such a move will undoubtedly help deepen cooperation between the two countries.

Inevitably, critics will pose the question: What impact will this have on Canada-China relations?

Canada’s relations with China are already in a difficult spot, due to the arrest of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.’s chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou. There seems little chance of concluding a free trade deal with China, despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s utmost efforts. Caught in the middle of the U.S.-China trade conflict, Ottawa should acquire additional leverage in its dealings with Beijing by hinting that it will consider the Indo-Pacific as a workable proposition.

Canada can be confident that the Chinese, being sensitive to a majority view within the ASEAN, may gradually reduce their resistance to the idea. As the Southeast Asian nations move towards endorsing an Indonesian proposal of accepting the term “Indo-Pacific” by year-end, Beijing may have no option but to follow suit.

There are also important economic considerations, especially with the ASEAN, that merit a careful look.

Canada scored a major win by joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), an advanced trade agreement linking 11 countries, which excludes the U.S., but includes four ASEAN members: Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei. CPTPP went into force last December and it should help bring Canada closer to the ASEAN.

At present, the ASEAN is engaged in negotiating the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement that includes China and India, but not Canada. Whether this agreement will eventually become a reality depends largely on India, which is seeking flexibility from China and the ASEAN in accepting its minimum requirements to reduce non-tariff barriers and facilitate services exports. Canada can promote its own interests by gradually becoming a significant component of the Indo-Pacific through a closer relationship with the ASEAN.

Both India and Canada are facing parliamentary elections this year. Their officials and diplomats are beginning to prepare policy briefs for the next governments. The Indo-Pacific should be seeping into their consciousness.

Rajiv Bhatia is distinguished fellow, Gateway House; a former Indian Ambassador to Myanmar and several other countries; and a published author. He also served as Consul General in Toronto.

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#IFTTT #Financial Post

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topmixtrends · 6 years

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IN EARLY 2011, the Arab Spring was at a zenith. Tunisians, Egyptians, and Libyans demanded the resignation of their leaders, and it looked like the protest movements might succeed. In the midst of the excitement, Syrians spoke a common refrain: “This will never happen here.” The revolt against Bashir al-Assad arrived only a few weeks later.

Rania Abouzeid’s No Turning Back: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria explains how the impossible happened, and how it went so tragically awry. Abouzeid, a well-known journalist, spent six years traveling in Syria (and many other Middle Eastern and European countries) gathering the material for this compassionate account of the Syrian uprising and civil war.

On a broad level, she tracks the complex trajectory of events and helps the reader navigate the dizzying array of local, regional, and international actors and the shifting allegiances. Abouzeid also provides extensive coverage of the role of social media in the Syrian uprising, particularly the role of young people, the “seeds of a grassroots civil society, young Internet-savvy volunteers working in their hometowns and learning as they went.” She invites us to consider the dynamic processes that connected local communities and transformed them into citizen rebels across Syria.

Picture this: in the government-besieged town of Rastan, activists drape sheets against the wall of a mosque that stands across the street from the State Security Building (its own wall graffitied with “Bashir is a donkey”). These sheets transform the wall of the mosque into a huge screen, onto which they project news footage of the protests happening throughout Syria so that Rastan knows it is not alone.

But at the heart of the book are the transformations that were taking place in the everyday lives of Syrian men, women, and children. To this end, Abouzeid expertly moves between succinct commentary on the context and the lives of a “cast of characters” who anchor her narrative and humanize it. These stories are a powerful reminder of the countless Syrian civilians who started a peaceful uprising, only to be both devoured and forgotten by most of the actors involved, many of whom were supposedly waging a revolution on their behalf.

Abouzeid’s “characters” cross ideological, religious, gender, age, and class divides. They all experience the upheaval and violence. From bewildered civilians to active participants and rebels: all are changed, but differently. In her “Note to Readers,” Abouzeid writes that her book is about “how a country unraveled one person at a time.”

Hence the book is about the reluctant activist; the rebel who became a commander; the prisoner who became an Islamist; the Islamist who became a radical; and even an erstwhile jihadist who ended up a content busboy in a restaurant in an unnamed European city. Abouzeid registers the small and big ways in which her characters were changed: some, it is true, appear to have forsaken their humanity to extremism and power, but most find creative ways to stay anchored, or to retrieve a measure of what had been lost.

Abouzeid’s eye and ear for the telling detail, the pregnant anecdote, the overheard phone conversation are testimony to her narrative skills. The writing is searing and sparingly beautiful, without ever trivializing the destruction and suffering it attempts to capture. War, she reminds us, alters the architecture of the city as much as it scrambles the human psyche. War’s destruction changes people’s relationship with space and movement, even inside the private space of the home. Abouzeid’s reporting is filled with evocative snapshots: front doors purposely left open during bombings to dampen the blasts; a little girl fearfully running across an open courtyard, a playing space now filled with danger. And from minarets, calls to prayer, calls to revolution, calls to defection. Explaining why they cannot return home to Saraqeb, a mother tells her daughter: “Now the planes are as permanent as the birds in the air.” Down on the ground, the author adds, the dead moved closer to the living — parks became new cemeteries, cemeteries became homes for internal refugees.

She shows us the new smells and sounds of violence that became normalized: “acoustic obituaries” from minarets; a young girl smirking in embarrassment that her mother still flinches at the sound of bullets; government shelling so predictable that Syrians called it the “nightly schedule,” as “regimented as a television viewing guide.” War also alters people’s relationship with time. In government-besieged Saraqeb, she notes, “the rebels called ahead to the gravedigger before they went on a mission,” often prepaying to save their families the expense.

Abouzeid does not shy away from the horrific realities of life under the regime, inside and out of its maze of prisons. Relaying these embodied, visceral, and often violent experiences allows her to illustrate the long-term processes at work in the making of rebels, revolutionaries, and Islamists. Through these stories we see how the excesses of the regime planted the seeds of the uprising long before 2011.

Mohammad, for example, was a boy of seven when the security service arrived in the village of Jisr al-Shaghour in early August 1986. He and everyone else in the village were ordered to watch as a neighbor, accused of connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, was beaten and his elderly mother stripped naked, beaten, and threatened with rape. “They planted hatred in me that day, it became rooted.”

Witnessing state violence against Islamists was only the first step. Mohammad tells Abouzeid that even though he was a secret admirer of al-Qaeda, it was his numerous stints in prison that radicalized him, making him an active member rather than a secret fan. He notes sardonically that after so many “sleeping” incidents for doing nothing, he decided to do something to make imprisonment worth his while. But it was the experience in prison and the connections he and others made there that were most transformative: prison, according to Mohammad, was his “greatest school.”

In the sections of the book that linger on the prison experience, the reader cannot but note what historians have long known: that prison is a catalyst for radicalization, as well as organizing. When I teach the history of the Middle East in the 20th century, I have a running joke of posing this question to my students: if you grow up to become an authoritarian leader and you want to hold on to your power, what things should you avoid doing? One thing is for certain: you should not release political prisoners, and you should certainly not reimprison them with like-minded activists. It seems that Bashir al-Assad, much like other members of the Middle Eastern club of dictators, does not care for history books. In a sense, this is good, for whoever is ignorant about the past is doomed to repeat past mistakes.

At another level, many of the prison experiences are testimony to human beings’ capacity for monstrosity as well as endurance. Suleiman, for example, was a carefree, apolitical young man who became a cyber-activist during the uprising. After he was detained, he was swallowed into a dark hole of imprisonment and torture almost too harrowing to read about.

Suleiman was “released” several times, only to be rearrested by a different state agency within minutes of being freed. At one point, he “marveled at the artistic cruelty of his guards. Who thought up those things?” He notes that one of his interrogators was nicknamed Abu Khatem (“the father of the ring”) because of the rings that cut the flesh of the prisoners he tortured or, in his words, “turned [them] into art.” One is tempted to add that Abu Khatem’s was art for art’s sake, with a nod to Kafka: randomly selected prisoners were subjected to extreme torture on a systematic basis, but never interrogated. Those who survived lived in overcrowded and utterly filthy conditions.

Yet, in the spirit of Solzhenitsyn’s Ivan Denisovich and Sinan Antoon’s Furat — prisoners in Stalin’s USSR and Saddam’s Iraq, respectively — there is also plenty of humanity and of the human spirit on display. Abouzeid recounts numerous acts of small kindness, particularly in the way that prisoners took care of their sickly and wounded. As one of hundreds of prisoners, sitting in rows upon rows in mind-numbing and bone-breaking silent agony, Suleiman fashions prayer beads from olive pits and string. He prays as he sits. He had learned to pray from other inmates. And what better act of small defiance in a prison where the guards ask, “Who is your God?” and where there are only two acceptable responses: “Bashir al-Assad, or you, sidi [master].”

Abouzeid writes that “revolution is an intimate, multipart act. First you silence the policeman in your head, then you face the policemen in the streets.” No Turning Back manages to convey the mixture of disbelief and newborn hope that drove thousands of people to take to the streets across Syria in March 2011. Among the most poignant examples of the stories she relates is about an 18-year-old student named Mohammad Darwish who, on April 1, 2011, dared to shout, “We want freedom,” in the middle of a crowd of men leaving a mosque in the town of Rastan. To paraphrase Charles Kurzman on the Iranian Revolution, this brave act illustrates the moment at which the unimaginable becomes possible. And in the spirit of Kurzman’s study, Abouzeid’s narrative forces the reader to ask: what comes first, revolution or revolutionaries?

The heroic acts of everyday protest that Abouzeid recounts only take on their full meaning when we understand the years of terrified silence that preceded the uprising. Abouzeid is careful to investigate the tortuous methods of Syria’s “republic of fear,” to borrow Kanan Makiya’s description of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Under the Assads, fear became a constant “physical presence” engrained in people’s minds, in their very bones. And no wonder: Syrians were all too familiar with the state’s complex and multi-branched security apparatus, scores of “men in black leather jackets who could make people disappear.” They remembered well Hafez al-Assad’s scorched earth war against the Muslim Brotherhood, and the destruction of the old city of Hama in 1982 (up to 30,000 people were killed, most of them civilians).

Hence, although the narrative is replete with heart-stopping moments of agony and terror, Abouzeid is rightly compelled by Syrians who manage to break the walls of fear with dignity and determination. The detail with which Abouzeid charts the transformation of civilians into rebels, fighters, Islamists, and radicals is one of the most powerful accomplishments of this book. Scholars have long analyzed the processes of revolution and rebellion, but sometimes forget to address the most important first step: at what point does the wall of fear crack, at what point does a person step out of their home and march against a government that they know will, without a doubt, butcher them?

Among the poems that Abouzeid includes is one by Bassem, a poet “who became a warrior.” His poem clearly registers an intense interest in historical action and memory, and is a needed reminder of the complex role that Islam has played in this conflict. It ends:

[W]e are entering the future clear-eyed Demanding that history testify and that our grandchildren know That Muslims, rightly named, spoke and acted Those who knew, who know, that if they spoke they would die, acted.

Bassem’s poem offers an interesting contrast to the sentiments expressed a century ago, by another Syrian poet who shared his concern with history. In October 1916, Nasib cArida, a Syrian immigrant and editor of the New York City magazine al-Funun, wrote with bitterness about the humiliation and passivity of the people in his home country during World War I:

A people without courage reaps only death as its reward Let history fold over the page And from its book erase This tale of weakness and disgrace. [1]

The tragic irony is that now, when Syrians have found the courage to act, it is precisely the brave who are dying.

Indeed, a sense of irony pervades Abouzeid’s narrative. She takes us back to February 2011, when Damascus, “the beating heart of Arabism,” banned a pan-Arab vigil against the Libyan embassy. The ban ended in violence, and was one of many sparks that led to the uprising. We learn, too, of a roundabout in Raqqa called Paradise, which ISIS decorated with long spikes topped with the heads of men it had executed. The irony is apt, for irony’s essence is the dashing of expectations. And if anything defines the events of the Arab Spring, it is precisely their unspring-like and devastating consequences.

One such consequence is exile. At what point does the involuntary refugee come to terms with extended homelessness, and with the more bitter reality that there is no longer a home at all? To paraphrase Suleiman, home is where you don’t have to explain yourself. But what to do if you no longer recognize the place you left behind? One answer — to my mind, the most defiant and inspiring — comes from a man named Maysaara. After fleeing to Turkey with his family, he returns alone to Saraqeb in 2015. After years fighting the regime, he goes home to work his land and provide employment to men who might otherwise fight for pay. He explains to Abouzeid: “If you leave it, you don’t deserve to return. […] What am I if I leave?”

For many Syrians, the years of war meant long periods of deprivation and starvation in besieged cities and towns. In Homs, Aleppo, Ghouta, and other locations, Syrians were reduced to eating grass, cats, and dogs. In fact, by 2013, muftis (men learned in sharia) in several Syrian locales began issuing fatwas (opinions) allowing for the consumption of unlawful food in cases of starvation. This is not the first time that war has driven Syrian civilians to survive on the flesh of animals prohibited by Islamic law. Just over a century ago, during the Great War, Syrians experienced a famine so devastating that, in the apocryphal memory of one writer, “mothers ate children; they became like cats and ate their children.” [2]

Nevertheless, Abouzeid’s title mentions “hope.” So let us not forget the Syrian who became known as the “cat man of Aleppo” for his commitment to saving animals in a destroyed city. Among the litany of evils Abouzeid bears witness to, such small acts of mercy shine a spotlight on humanity’s enduring resilience.

Najwa al-Qattan is professor of Ottoman and modern Middle Eastern History at Loyola Marymount University. Her areas of research include: the Jews and Christians of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman sharia courts, and Syria and Lebanon in the Great War.

[1] Nasib cArida, in Mustafa Badawi, Mukhtarat min al-shicr al-hadith [Selections from Contemporary Poetry] (Dar al-Nahar li’l-Nashr, Beirut, Lebanon: 1969), pp 111–112. The translation is the author’s.

[2] Hanna Mina, Fragments of Memory: A Story of a Syrian Family, trans., Olive Kenny and Lorne Kenny (Texas: University of Texas at Austin, 1993), p. 173.

The post Watching a Country Unravel, One Person at a Time: An Intimate Account of Syria’s Civil War appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.

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celindaalmond0-blog · 6 years

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Meaningful Phrases Vs. Meaningless Job

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ramialkarmi · 7 years

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Psychedelics could be the cutting-edge treatment for mental illness that we’ve been ignoring for half a century

Estalyn Walcoff arrived at the nondescript beige building in Manhattan's Grammercy Park neighborhood on a balmy August morning, hours before the city would begin to swell with the frenetic energy of summer tourists. She was about to face a similar type of chaos — but only in her mind.

Pushing open the door to the Bluestone Center at the New York University College of Dentistry, Walcoff entered what looked like an average 1970s living room. A low-backed brown couch hugged one wall. On either side, a dark brown table held a homely lamp and an assortment of colorful, hand-painted dishes. A crouching golden Buddha, head perched thoughtfully on its knee, adorned another table closer to the entrance.

Months before, Walcoff had volunteered to participate in a study of how the psychedelic drug psilocybin, the main psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms, affects the brain in cancer patients with anxiety and depression. The promising results of that five-year study, published earlier this month, have prompted some researchers to liken the treatment to a "surgical intervention.”

The researchers believe they are on the cusp of nothing less than a breakthrough: A single dose of psychedelic drugs appears to alleviate the symptoms of some of the most common, perplexing, and tragic illnesses of the brain. With depression the leading cause of disability worldwide, the timing seems ideal.

In people like Walcoff, whose depression and anxiety struck them like a powerful blow following a cancer diagnosis, one dose of psilocybin seemed to quiet her existential dread, to remind her of her connectedness with the world around her, and perhaps most importantly, to reassure her of her place in it.

And these results don't seem to be limited to people with cancer or another life-threatening illness. Participants in a handful of other psychedelic studies consistently ranked their trip as one of their most meaningful life experiences — not only because of the trip itself, but because of the changes they appear to produce in their lives in the months and years afterward.

Still, the existing research is limited — which is why, scientists say, they so badly need permission from the government to do more.

Clark’s story

1990 was a year of life and death for Clark Martin. It was the year his daughter was born and the year he was diagnosed with cancer.

Over the next twenty years, as his daughter took her first steps, experienced her first day of school, and eventually began growing into a smart, fiercely independent teenager, doctors waged a blitzkrieg on Martin's body. Six surgeries. Two experimental treatments. Thousands of doctor's visits. The cancer never went into remission, but Martin and his doctors managed to keep it in check by staying vigilant, always catching the disease just as it was on the brink of spreading.

Still, the cancer took its toll. Martin was riddled with anxiety and depression. He'd become so focused on saving his body from the cancer that he hadn't made time for the people and things in his life that really mattered. His relationships were in shambles; he and his daughter barely spoke.

So in 2010, after reading an article in a magazine about a medical trial that involved giving people with cancer and anxiety the drug psilocybin, he contacted the people running the experiment and asked to be enrolled.

After weeks of lengthy questionnaires and interviews, he was selected. On a chilly December morning, Martin walked into the facility at Johns Hopkins, where he was greeted by two researchers including Johns Hopkins psychologist Bill Richards. The three of them sat and talked in the room for half an hour, going over the details of the study and what might happen.

Martin then received a pill and swallowed it with a glass of water. For study purposes, he couldn't know whether it was a placebo or psilocybin, the drug the researchers aimed to study.

Next, he lay back on the couch, covered his eyes with the soft shades he'd been given, and waited.

Within a few minutes, Martin began to feel a sense of intense panic.

"It was quite anxiety provoking. I tried to relax and meditate but that seemed to make it worse and I just wanted everything to snap back into place. There was no sense of time and I realized the drug was in me and there was no stopping it.”

Martin, an avid sailor, told me it reminded him of a frightening experience he'd had once when, after being knocked off his boat by a wave, he'd become suddenly disoriented and lost track of the boat, which was floating behind him.

"It was like falling off the boat in the open ocean, looking back, and the boat is gone. And then the water disappears. Then you disappear."

Martin was terrified, and felt on the verge of a "full-blown panic attack." Thanks to the comfort and guidance of his doctors, however, he was eventually able to calm down. Over the next few hours, the terror vanished. It was replaced with a sense of tranquility that Martin still has trouble putting into words.

"With the psilocybin you get an appreciation — it's out of time — of well-being, of simply being alive and a witness to life and to everything and to the mystery itself," said Martin.

Lots of things happened to Martin over the course of his four-hour trip. For a few hours, he remembers feeling a sense of ease; he was simultaneously comfortable, curious, and alert. At one point, he recalls a vision of being in a sort of cathedral where he asked God to speak to him. More than anything else, though, he no longer felt alone.

"The whole ‘you' thing just kinda drops out into a more timeless, more formless presence," Martin said.

Over the next few hours, as his trip slowly began to draw to a close and he began to return to reality, Martin recalls a moment where the two worlds — the one in which he was hallucinating and the reality he could call up willingly from memory — seemed to merge. He turned his attention to his relationships. He thought of his daughter. His friends. His co-workers.

"In my relationships I had always approached it from a, ‘How do I manage this?', How do I present myself?,' ‘Am I a good listener?', type of standpoint. But it dawned on me as I was coming out of [the trip] that relationships are pretty much spontaneous if you're just present and connecting," said Martin.

That shift, which Martin stresses has continued to deepen since he took the psilocybin in 2010, has had enduring implications for his relationships.

"Now if I'm meeting people, the default is to be just present, not just physically, but mentally present to the conversation. That switch has been profound.”

While he felt himself undergo a shift during his 4-hour trip on psilocybin, Martin says the most enduring changes in his personality and his approach to those around him have continued to unfold in the months and years after he took the drug. For him, the drug was merely a catalyst; a "kick-start," he likes to call it. By temporarily redirecting his perspective within the span of few hours, Martin believes it unleashed a chain reaction in the way he sees and approaches the world.

This squares with what researchers have found by looking at the brain on psilocybin.

Taking the road(s) less traveled

Ask a healthy person who's "tripped" on psychedelics what it felt like, and they'll probably tell you they saw sounds.

The crash-bang of a dropped box took on an aggressive, dark shape. Or they might say they heard colors. A bright green light seems to emit a piercing, high-pitched screech.

In actuality, this "cross-wiring" — or synaesthesia, as it's known scientifically — may be one example of the drug "freeing" the brain from its typical connection patterns.

This fundamental change in how the brain sends and receives information also might be the reason they're so promising as a treatment for people with mental illnesses like depression, anxiety, or addiction. In order to understand why, it helps to take a look at how a healthy brain works.

Normally, information gets exchanged in the brain using various circuits, or what one researcher described to me as "informational highways." On some highways, there's a steady stream of traffic. On others, however, there's rarely more than a few cars on the road. Psychedelics appear to drive traffic to these underused highways, opening up dozens of different routes to new traffic and freeing up some space along the more heavily-used ones.

Dr. Robin Cahart-Harris, who leads the psychedelic research arm of the Center for Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, captured these changes in one of the first neuroimaging studies of the brain on a psychedelic trip. He presented his findings at a conference on the therapeutic potential of psychedelics in New York City last year. "[With the psilocybin] there was a definite sense of lubrication, of freedom, of the cogs being loosened and firing in all sorts of unexpected directions," said Cahart-Harris.

This might be just the kick-start that a depressed brain needs.

One key characteristic of depression is overly-strengthened connections between brain circuits in certain regions of the brain — particularly those involved in concentration, mood, conscious thought, and the sense of self. And in fact, this may be part of the reason that electroconvulsive therapy, which involves placing electrodes on the temples and delivering a small electrical current, can help some severely depressed people — by tamping down on some of this traffic.

"In the depressed brain, in the addicted brain, in the obsessed brain, it gets locked into a pattern of thinking or processing that's driven by the frontal, the control center, and they cannot un-depress themselves," David Nutt, the director of the neuropsychopharmacology unit in the Division of Brain Sciences at Imperial College London, told me.

Nutt has been one of the pioneering researchers in the field of studying how psychedelics might be used to treat mental illness. He said that in depressed people, these overly-trafficked circuits (think West Los Angeles at rush-hour) can lead to persistent negative thoughts. Feelings of self-criticism can get obsessive and overwhelming. So in order to free someone with depression from those types of thoughts, one would need to divert traffic from some of these congested ruts and, even better, redirect it to emptier highways.

Which is precisely what psychedelics appear to do.

"Psychedelics disrupt that process so people can escape. At least for the duration of the trip they can escape about the ruminations about depression or alcohol or obsessions. And then they do not necessarily go back," said Nutt.

A 4-hour trip, a long-lasting change

"Medically what you're doing [with psychedelics is] you're perturbing the system," Paul Expert, who co-authored one of the first studies to map the activity in the human brain on psilocybin, told me over tea on a recent afternoon in London's bustling Whitechapel neighborhood.

Expert, a physicist at the King's College London Center for Neuroimaging Sciences, doesn't exactly have the background you'd expect from someone studying magic mushrooms.

But it was by drawing on his background as a physicist, Expert told me, that he and his team were able to come up with a systematic diagram of what the brain looks like on a psilocybin trip. Their study, published in 2014, also helps explain how altering the brain temporarily with psilocybin can produce changes that appear to continue to develop over time.

When you alter how the brain functions (or "perturb the system," in physicist parlance) with psychedelics, "that might reinforce some connections that already exist, or they might be more stimulated," Expert told me.

But those changes aren't as temporary as one might expect for a 4-hour shroom trip. Instead, they appear to catalyze dozens of other changes that deepen in the for months and years after taking the drug.

"So people who take magic mushrooms report for a long time after the actual experience that they feel better, they're happier with life," said Expert. "But understanding exactly why this is the case is quite tricky, because the actual trip is very short, and it's not within that short span of time that you could actually have sort of new connections that are made. That takes much more time.”

The clinical trials that Walcoff and Martin took part in, which took place at NYU and Johns Hopkins over the course of five years, are the longest and most comprehensive studies of people with depression on psychedelics that we have to-date. Last year, a team of Brazilian researchers published a review of all of the clinical trials on psychedelics published between 1990 and 2015. After looking at 151 studies, the researchers were only able to find six which met their analysis criteria. The rest were either too small, too poorly-controlled, or problematic for another reason. Nevertheless, based on the six studies they were able to review, the researchers concluded that "ayahuasca, psilocybin, and LSD may be useful pharmacological tools for the treatment of drug dependence, and anxiety and mood disorders, especially in treatment-resistant patients. These drugs may also be useful pharmacological tools to understand psychiatric disorders and to develop new therapeutic agents.”

Because the existing research is so limited, scientists still can't say exactly what is happening in the brain of someone who's tripped on psychedelics that appears to unleash such a cascade of life changes like the kind Martin described.

What we do know, though, is that things like training for a musical instrument or learning a skill change the brain. It's possible that psychedelics do something similar over the long-term, even if the actual trip — the phase of drug use that many people focus on — is pretty brief.

In other words, a trip "might trigger a sort of snowball effect," said Expert, in the way the brain processes information.

And something about the experience appears to be much more powerful, for some people, than even years of antidepressants. A small recent trial of psilocybin that Nutt co-authored in people whose chronic depression had not responded to repeated attempts at treatment with medication suggested that this may be the case. While the trial was only designed to determine if the drug was safe, all of the study participants saw a significant decrease in symptoms at a one-week follow-up; the majority said they continued to see a decrease in symptoms at another follow-up done three months later.

"We treated people who'd been suffering for 30 years. And they're getting better with a single dose," said Nutt. "So that tells us this drug is doing something profound.”

Killing the ego

Between 1954 and 1960, Dr. Humphry Osmond gave thousands of alcoholics LSD.

It was part of an experimental treatment regimen aimed at helping them recover. Osmond thought that the acid would mimic some of the symptoms of delirium tremens, a psychotic condition common in chronic alcoholics when they try to stop drinking that can involve tremors, hallucinations, anxiety, and disorientation. Osmond thought the experience might shock the alcoholics, who'd thus far failed to respond to any other treatments, into not drinking again.

He was wrong.

Rather than terrifying his patients with an extreme case of shakes and hallucinations, the acid appeared to produce positive, long-lasting changes in their personalities. Something about the LSD appeared to help the suffering alcoholics "reorganize their personalities and reorganize their lives," said New York University psychiatrist Michael Bogenschutz at a conference on therapeutic psychedelics last year.

A year later, 40% to 45% of Osmond's patients had not returned to drinking — a higher success rate than any other existing treatment for alcoholism.

In an interview with the Harvard psychiatrist Dr. John Halpern, Osmond's colleague, the biochemist Dr. Abram Hoffer, recalled, "Many of them didn't have a terrible experience. In fact, they had a rather interesting experience.”

While some call it interesting, other have called it "spiritual," "mystical," or even "religious.”

Scientists still can't say for sure what is going on in the brain during a trip that appears to produce these types of experiences. We know that part of it is about the tamping down of certain circuits and the ramping up of others.

Interestingly enough, one of the circuits that appears to get quieter during a psychedelic trip is the circuit that connects the parahippocampus and the retrosplenial cortex. This network is thought to play a key role in our sense of self, or ego.

Deflating the ego is far from the soul-crushing disappointment it sounds like. Instead, it appears to make people feel more connected to the people and environment around them.

Cahart-Harris, who conducted the first study of its kind to take images of a healthy brain on LSD, said in a news release that his findings support that idea. In a normal, non-drugged person, specific parts of our brain light up with activity depending on what we're doing. If we're focused on reading something, the visual cortex sparkles with action. If we're listening carefully to someone, our auditory cortex is particularly active. Under the influence of LSD, the activity isn't as neatly segregated. "... the separateness of these networks breaks down and instead you see a more integrated or unified brain," he said.

That change might help explain why the drug produces an altered state of consciousness too. Just as the invisible walls between once-segregated tasks are broken down, the barriers between the sense of self and the feeling of interconnection with one's environment appear to dissolve. "The normal sense of self is broken down and replaced by a sense of re-connection with themselves, others and the natural world,"said Cahart-Harris.

Given that one of the key characteristics of mental illnesses like depression and alcoholism is isolation and loneliness, this newfound interconnection could act as a powerful antidote.

"It's kind of like getting out of a cave. You can see the light and you can stay in the light," said Nutt. "You've been liberated.”

A spiritual experience

Humans have a long history of looking to "spiritual experiences" to treat mental illness and of using psychedelics to help bring such experiences about.

Ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic beverage brewed from the macerated and boiled vines of the Banisteriopsis caapi (yagé) plant and the Psychotria viridis (chacruna) leaf, has been used as a traditional spiritual medicine in ceremonies among the indigenous peoples of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru for centuries. Its name is a combination of the Quechua words "aya,"which can be loosely translated into "spirit"and "waska,"or "woody vine."Europeans didn't encounter ayahuasca until the 1500s, when Christian missionaries traveling through Amazonia from Spain and Portugal saw it being used by indigenous peoples. (At the time, they called it the work of the devil.)

It's now understood that ayahuasca has a similar effect on the brain as magic mushrooms or acid. Yet unlike magic mushrooms, whose main psychoactive ingredient is the drug psilocybin, ayahuasca's psychoactive effects come from a result of mixing two different substances — the drug dimethyltryptamine (DMT), from the chacruna plant, and the MAO-Inhibitor (MAOI), from the yage plant, which allows the DMT to be absorbed into our bloodstream.

In the early 1950s, in fact, writer William Burroughs traveled through South America looking for the yagé plant hoping that he could use it to help cure opiate addiction. Some fifteen years earlier, a man suffering in an alcoholic ward in New York had a transformative experience on the hallucinogen belladonna. "The effect was instant, electric. Suddenly my room blazed with an incredibly white light," the man wrote. Shortly after that, the man, whose name was William ("Bill”) Wilson, would go on to found the 12-step recovery program Alcoholics Anonymous. Wilson later experimented with LSD and said he believed the drug could help alcoholics achieve one of the central tenets of AA: acceptance of a "power greater than ourselves.”

Nevertheless, ayahuasca, LSD, and other hallucinogens were slow to gain notoriety across Europe and North America. They saw a temporary surge in popularity in the US in the 1960s, with people like Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert writing of the "ego loss" produced by magic mushrooms as part of their Harvard Psilocybin Project. But in 1966, the US government made psychedelics illegal, and most experimentation, along with all research into their potential medicinal properties, came to a screeching halt.

Meanwhile, scientists have continued to experiment with the drugs in whatever capacity they can. Bogenschutz, one of the presenters at the New York psychedelic conference, has spent years studying the effects of a single dose of psychedelics on addicts. He's found that in most cases, studies suggest the hallucinogens can improve mood, decrease anxiety, increase motivation, produce changes in personality, beliefs and values, and most importantly, decrease cravings. But how?

"One of the big questions was how would a single use produce lasting behavior change?" he said in 2014, "because if this is going to produce any lasting effect, there have to be consistent changes.”

Based on several small pilot studies that he's helped conduct, Bogenschutz hypothesizes that the drugs affect addicts in two ways, which he breaks down into "acute" or short-term effects and "secondary"or longer-term effects. In the short-term, psychedelics affect our serotonin receptors, the brain's main mood-regulatory neurotransmitters. Next, they affect our glutamate receptors, which appear to produce the so-called transformative experiences and psychological insight that people experience on the drugs.

"This is the most rewarding work I've ever done. To see these kinds of experiences ... it's just not as easy to get there with psychotherapy," he said.

Staying in the light

From the time she was born, Clark Martin's daughter and her father had a difficult relationship. He and his wife were never married, but they loved their child and divided their time with her as best they could. Still, Martin couldn't help feel like their time together was consistently strained. For one thing, the spontaneity that's so vital to many relationships was absent. He always knew when their time together started and when it was coming to an end.

"You're not having as much everyday experience," Martin recalled. "Instead you're having kind of a planned experience. And that affects the depth of the relationship, I think."

Martin felt similarly about his father, who had developed Alzheimer's several years before. Martin would visited when he could, but whenever they were together Martin felt compelled to try and push the visits into the confines of whatever he thought a "normal" father-son interaction should be. He'd try to make their discussions mirror the ones they would have had before his father became ill — "I kept trying to have ‘normal' conversations with him," Martin recalled.

About three hours into his psilocybin trip at Johns Hopkins, Martin called to mind a memory of his teenage daughter. "I'd been so focused on pursuing my own ideas about what was best for her," he realized, "trying to be the architect of her life," that he had let that get in the way of making sure she knew how much he loved and cared about her.

One afternoon about a year after the trip, Martin drove out to visit his father. This time, instead of trying to have a "normal" conversation with him, Martin took him for a drive.

"He always loved farming and ranching and we'd just get in the car and spend hours driving along," Martin recalled.

As they drove, rolling green hills sped past them on all sides. His father looked out at the lush horizon with awe, as if he were seeing it for the first time. The crisp blue sky. The soft blanket of grass.

All of a sudden, Martin's father saw something. He gestured out the window, but Martin saw nothing — just grass and trees and sky. Then, something moved in the distance. There, in the middle of two emerald hills, a deer cocked its head up.

"It was miles away," said Martin. "I would have completely missed it."

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