#it’s been 3 months in game and it’s astonishing to see how much these strangers have made each other worse

[flowercrown-bard]

A new us will begin (6/ 11)

word count: 7777

AO3

part 1   / part 2 / part 3  / part 4  / part 5 /  part 7

Tw: assault (mugging) assault (taking away someone’s mobility/orientation aid), injuries

It was strange making it up the mountain to Kaer Morhen. Too long had Geralt not found it in him to go to the only place he had left to call home. Even stranger was taking the track before the first leaves of autumn began to fall. Never before had Geralt been this early and it filled him both with a sense of unease and excitement.

The year on the Path had been rough, harder than usual and he was aching to go back home and see familiar faces. Unlike before, it hadn’t been rough because of how many injuries Geralt got and how often he knocked on death’s door, oh no. This year – for the first time in a long, long time – Geralt needed to make sure he didn’t throw himself into danger as he had done the decades prior. If he did, and if he died because of his recklessness, he would never get to see if he had been right, if through some miracle, there would be another Jaskier out there, waiting for him.

It was a small hope, but it was hope nonetheless and that was more than he had had ever since Jaskier’s death.

Now, that hope was eating at him, gnawing at his heart like a bloodhound gnawed at its prey. He needed to survive if he wanted to see Jaskier again, however slim the chance. But there was a chance, wasn’t there? All those things connecting Yarrow to Jaskier, they couldn’t have been coincidences. There had to be an explanation and Geralt’s foolish, battered heart refused to accept any other explanation than the one he had found while standing over Jaskier’s grave.

But that wasn’t enough. Witchers learned early on not to rely on hope. All the boys hoped they would make it through the trials. Every full-grown witcher hoped he wouldn’t get killed by a monster, human or otherwise. Hope didn’t keep any of them alive.

Geralt needed more, needed to know more. He needed Vesemir’s help, his advice, his untainted view on what was happening. Which was why, when the towering walls of Kaer Morhen came into sight, Geralt’s throat restricted. Behind these walls lay either hope or damnation.

When Vesemir saw him enter the halls, he stared at him for an uncomfortably long moment, assessing him and scanning him over for injuries or any other visible reason that could have brought him back home, and so early too. After how seldom he came back anymore, Geralt couldn’t fault him for being reserved. With every year that Geralt had stayed away, the guilt that pressed on his chest became heavier until it had turned into shame.  

The apology at making his family believe that he might have died was already on his tongue, when Vesemir crossed the hall in long strides and crushed Geralt against his chest.

Geralt trembled as he pressed his face into the crock of Vesemir’s neck. His mentor had never been allowed to be the kindest man, but he would do everything in his power to help and comfort his family. And gods, Geralt needed comfort. It had been so long since he had someone just hold him; not promising that nothing bad would happen, but promising that Geralt would get through it and that they would be there for him.

Geralt didn’t cry. Not when Vesemir’s embrace tightened briefly and not when Vesemir pulled back again to look him over for injuries. As far as Geralt knew, he showed no more signs of his distress, but from the way Vesemir’s brows drew together, he could tell that something had happened.

Vesemir made no move to comfort him again, but his expression was focussed and determined when he asked Geralt what he needed.

It didn’t take long for Geralt to spill everything. It should have. Years and years of heartbreak and despair that culminated in that one impossible, crushing hope, Yarrow had given him, shouldn’t be summarised in a handful of sentences. Jaskier would have rolled his eyes and complained about his lack of artistry if he’d been here to hear, but he would have also cupped Geralt’s face lovingly and shown him that he was here for him.

Vesemir did no such thing. Geralt didn’t expect him to. This wasn’t what he had come here for. He had come for advice, for the cutting rationality that he knew Vesemir would bring to this.

When Geralt asked him the impossible, if there was still a chance that Jaskier might be alive in some way, Vesemir became eerily still.

Geralt saw in his eyes what answer he was about to give him, and still his chest crumbled when Vesemir did. No one had ever come back from the dead.

It was a sobering answer. It was one that nearly shattered Geralt.

Vesemir had always been rational and to the point. If he said he knew of no one who had conquered death, then it wasn’t likely that Jaskier had been the first to do so. But Vesemir also loved his family with a fierce dedication. When Geralt clammed up, closed himself off, pulled his walls back up, Vesemir was the one who grabbed him by the arm and dragged him to the library. He was the one who made sure that no book on the topic remained unread and that Geralt contacted every sorceress he knew.

Triss looked at him with pity and promised to do her best to help him. Keira said she’d keep her eyes open, but Geralt shouldn’t be surprised if she decided that she had better things to do than chase after Geralt’s daydream. Philippa’s expression turned into one of astonished surprise before she just left – she couldn’t have made it any clearer just how stupid she thought Geralt for clinging to this hope like a toddler to their mother’s skirts.

When he contacted Yennefer, the answer to his question now was no different than it had been when he had gone to her a month after Jaskier’s death: There was no way for a sorceress to bring him back to life.

But Geralt knew better. He had seen magic even more powerful than even Yennefer’s. He had seen what a Djinn could do, what Destiny could do, as much as the nation made him want to grind his teeth.

The library of Kaer Morhen brought no clear answers. Despite hours reading and desperately searching for anything substantial, all they found were theories and speculation.

The idea that Jaskier somehow had been reincarnated could be the hopeful wish of a fool just as well as the truth.

It wasn’t much and it wasn’t what Geralt had hoped for, but this slim chance that he had been right, was like a spark inside Geralt’s chest, growing stronger with each passing day until it turned into a fire.

This year, when Eskel and Lambert finally arrived, Geralt didn’t avoid them like he had before to wallow in his misery, lest enjoying himself would bring back painful memories of the times Jaskier had accompanied him to Kaer Morhen. For the first time in decades, he joined in when they asked him to spend time with them. It was obvious that they noticed the change in him, but even Lambert knew better than to ask what had brought it forth.

When Geralt finally told Eskel one drunken night, that maybe in a few years’ time, Jaskier would join them at the keep again, he ignored the look of pity Eskel gave him. Eskel didn’t know what Geralt knew. And Geralt’s certainty that he would get Jaskier back was unwavering.

--

Once the snow thawed, Geralt went back on the Path, almost brimming with energy. This year, it wouldn’t only be monsters he would track. Jaskier, wherever he was now, must still be a baby, no older than a toddler at the most, but Geralt could waste no time in his search for where he could be.  He couldn’t put his trust and Jaskier’s life in the hands of Destiny to keep him safe or hope chance would bring him to him in time.

When the year turned round again and autumn once more painted the continent red, Geralt told himself that it wasn’t too bad that he had found no trail of Jaskier that first year of his search. He had time. Jaskier could be with a loving family right now, learning how to walk and talk. Geralt had time. He would find him again.

--

A decade of not finding so much as a hint of Jaskier in this world, made his faith waver. It could be coincidence that he hadn’t heard of Jaskier yet. This was just Destiny playing her cruel games. Geralt refused to believe that maybe he had been wrong and Jaskier wouldn’t come back to him.

And yet…

Geralt hated himself for it. Hated himself more, than when he had let that Viscount die or when he hadn’t been fast enough to save that child. He hated himself, because all it took was three more decades to crush his spirits and his hopes. He hated himself, because he gave up, because he had failed Jaskier again by accepting how hopeless this search had been. And he hated himself for having been fool enough to make himself believe that he still could get Jaskier back somehow.

When the air grew crisper and leaves turned brown, Geralt had already decided that he wouldn’t return to Kaer Morhen. Instead he went to Dol Blathanna and mourned Jaskier’s loss for a second time.

--

It was already late autumn, too late to change his mind about going to Kaer Morhen after all, when doubt crept up on Geralt.

The wind was colder this year and if it continued like this, Geralt would be forced to take more dangerous contracts, if he wanted to survive the winter.

Hell, even now he had to flee into a tavern from the cold, despite knowing that he it wouldn’t leave him with enough coin to make it another week without going on a hunt again. He had really wanted to buy a new cloak and gloves, but he supposed that was a luxury, he wouldn’t be able to afford this year. All he could do to keep warm right now, was buy the cheapest ale he could find, hoping that it would be enough to warm him a little from the inside and linger here for as long as he could, before he would inevitably get kicked out again.

It was miserable. It was exactly what he had coming for chasing after dreams. He had always known that dreams were nothing but pretend, hadn’t he? He couldn’t escape facing the nightmare that was reality any longer.

A harsh wind swept into the tavern when the door was thrust open with more force than normally. Instinctively, Geralt tensed and beneath the table, his hand went to the swords leaning against his. It was only the laughter that followed the bitter wind into the tavern, that made Geralt relax again. It wasn’t the cruel laughter of someone looking for trouble but the cheers of a group of friends that wanted nothing but to spend the night drinking.

Geralt settled back into his seat and averted his eyes, fighting down the bitterness that rose up in him. Still, he couldn’t help but see the group of people that came in out of the corner of his eyes. They were too loud, too big a presence to not notice them.

They walked through the tavern as if it belonged to them, as if they belonged here, but not in the arrogant way Geralt had seen soldiers or powerful criminals behave.

Geralt scowled and took a swig of his ale, more to block his view on the group than out of the need to drink. It was too close. Too much like how Jaskier had acted when he waltzed into a tavern, sure in the knowledge that he would get everyone in it to admire him.

He should stop thinking about Jaskier. That was the entire reason why he was here and not on his way to Kaer Morhen; so that he would be distracted and wouldn’t have to face the halls of his home that was now so empty and cold without Jaskier’s laugh filling them.

The very same laugh that now rang through the tavern, louder than any other, more joyful than befitted this moment.

Geralt flinched, spilling some of his ale over himself. His eyes raced through the room, wide and wild, while his heart refused to slow down. His whole body was tense as a bow string and he gripped the tankard tightly enough to turn his knuckles white.

He couldn’t be here. He couldn’t. Geralt had searched for years, decades, without so much as a rumour of anyone fitting Jaskier’s description. He wasn’t here, he wasn’t alive.

But there was no mistaking his laugh. Geralt would be able to recognise it in a crowd of hundreds. And this, this bright, boisterous laugh that came from the group of newcomers, was exactly like that laugh that Geralt had accepted he would never hear again.

Geralt’s eyes were trained on the group like a hawk fixating its prey. There were too many people. He couldn’t find Jaskier, he couldn’t –

One slightly older woman with red locks leaned forward, unblocking his view and Geralt’s heart jumped to his throat. There he was. Jaskier.

He looked older than Yarrow had been, but still far from wearing the wrinkles that had painted Jaskier’s skin for the last decades of his life. He must be in his forties, but it was hard to tell, with the ridiculous feathered hat that obscured part of his face and the beard that dusted his chin.

Geralt’s lips twitched and his heart fluttered in his chest. It looked almost like the one time Jaskier had lost a bet and let Geralt shave his beard in ridiculous ways. He had pretended to sulk after that, but the whole time there had been mirth twinkling in his eyes, especially when he had taken his revenge by shaving Geralt’s hair. The both of them had looked terrible after that, and Geralt wouldn’t have had it any other way. The chuckle that had bubbled up in Jaskier every time he had laid eyes on Geralt then, had been the most beautiful sound Geralt could imagine.

And now that laugh was back, fading with time, but not dying down fully.

The woman with the red hair flashed him a mock-glare that Jaskier didn’t seem to notice or was used to enough not to be intimidated, judging from his lack of reaction.

“You wouldn’t dare do that during an actual performance.”

“Is that a challenge?” Jaskier’s smile turned into a grin. “Because if it is, my dear Nadine, you know I will take it.”

“Sure, if you want to get shoved off the stage.” The red-head snorted. “I’m being serious. You know that I love you, but don’t make me break character again or I will take my revenge on you, Dandy.”

Dandy. It was a strange name, but Geralt couldn’t help but smile at it. As ridiculous as it was, there was no denying it fit. Jaskier – Dandy – was twirling a cane at his side that was weirdly long but decorated with bright colours and a ball that almost looked like a gem at the end. It looked utterly impractical, but since when had Jaskier ever cared about practicality when it came to his accessoires.  Geralt’s eyes drifted back up to the long hair was curled in a way that made it very clear that Dandy put a lot of effort into his appearance.

Geralt was so distracted by the sight of him, that it took a moment for the girl’s other words to catch up to Geralt. Performance.

So this Dandy was a musician again. Something warmed in Geralt’s chest and his fingers twitched against his tankard. He would get to hear Jaskier sing again, would see him stand on a stage and bask in applause again!

The need to see him like that overflowed and made it impossible to think. The reality of all this hit him with unhindered force. For all of Geralt’s hope, of all the time he had spent convincing himself that he would find Jaskier again, he hadn’t once thought about what he would actually do once he found him. Now, that he was so close, sitting so damn near that all Geralt had to do was walk over there to touch him, he didn’t know what to do but helplessly watch Dandy joke with his friends. Geralt wanted to be one of them. He needed to feel Jaskier’s eyes on him, his hands, anything he was willing to give.

But this wasn’t Jaskier. It was Dandy. And Dandy didn’t know Geralt, has never met him before. If Geralt just came up to his table and told him – told him what exactly? That they had been lovers before? That Dandy had lived different lives and that he had died because Geralt had failed him?

There was nothing Geralt could say or do that wouldn’t make Dandy draw back, thinking him a disoriented drunk at best and a dangerous threat at worst. Now that Geralt was finally so close to the dream that had consumed every waking moment of his life, he didn’t know what to do to not ruin it.

Every fibre of his being screamed at Geralt to just do something, no matter the consequences. But Geralt had spent lifetimes without Jaskier and he would be damned if he did anything that would push Dandy away and leave him a lonely mess once more. As much as it hurt him to sit by idly, Geralt gathered all his strength to not go to Dandy right then and there and pull him close, burry his face into his neck and never let him go again.

He forced himself to sit back and just watch him, got drunk on the sight of him. Geralt’s chest tightened as if an iron fist was clenching around it, when one of Dandy’s friends began to sing and the rest joined in. For years, Geralt had fallen asleep with the memory of Jaskier’s voice in his ear, but hearing Dandy sing now, clear and full of unbridled happiness was something entirely different. His voice soared up and fell to an almost-whisper. Geralt’s eyes stung and he had to fight against blinking the burning away, unwilling to close his eyes for even a second and lose sight of Dandy. And oh, he was beautiful like this, swaying with the rhythm and smiling around the melody as if this was what he’d been born for.

When the song roared higher and higher, Dandy threw his head back and Geralt’s watched with bated breath as the hat fell to the ground, revealing the rest of Dandy’s face that had been hidden before.

He was beautiful. He was so painfully beautiful and he was alive and he was right there!

In that moment, Geralt wanted nothing more than to see his eyes. So often had Jaskier looked at him softly while he sang, a storm of emotion dancing in his eyes that was only meant for Geralt to see. He needed to see those eyes again, even if they wouldn’t hold any of those feelings for Geralt now.

Yet, the blue he hadn’t seen in so long remained hidden from him even now. Dandy’s eyes were closed, as he sang with passion, the same way Jaskier had sometimes closed his eyes, so he would feel nothing but the moment and the song.

Geralt’s chest threatened to burst at the sudden realisation that hadn’t reached him until now: Dandy was happy. Really, truly happy. He was surrounded by friends, he had money enough to drink carelessly, he had the confidence to sing in a room filled with strangers, even if he wasn’t singing for them. Dandy had everything Yarrow had lacked. He had everything Geralt could ever want for him.

Maybe…no. Geralt forced himself to look away, no matter how much everything in him yelled at him for doing so. His hand trembled, as he lifted the tankard to his lips once more.

Dandy was happy. He had everything he could need. Who was Geralt to think he had any right to insert himself into that life Dandy had built for himself?

Because there were only two ways this could go, if Geralt approached him. Either Dandy wouldn’t be interested in having Geralt in his life and Geralt would be forced to life with the rejection of the man whom he used to mean everything to. Or Dandy would be the same as Jaskier and Yarrow had been. He would give up this life, throw it away for a chance to be with Geralt. Try as he might to do right by him, Geralt wouldn’t be able to replace what Dandy already had.

It was selfish and cruel to even think about taking him away from this life he evidently loved.

Geralt should leave. He now knew for sure that Dandy was alive, that he was happy. That should be enough to satisfy him. There was no need to stay and risk tearing down Dandy’s life.

There was no doubt, that leaving would be the right thing to do, and yet Geralt’s body didn’t obey him. The urge to stay, if only just a little while longer and bask in Dandy’s presence, was bigger than any rational thought telling him it was madness.

He stayed and watched as Dandy blindly reached down and searched for his hat, before putting it on again and obscuring Geralt’s sight once more without having granted him as much as a glance at his eyes.

Geralt stayed even as his own ale was long gone and the barkeep kept shooting him dirty looks for taking up space without at least nursing another ale. Geralt couldn’t afford another drink, not if he wanted to sleep in an actual bed, sheltered from the cold winds, this night, but the dread of freezing in the night was nothing against the fear of losing Dandy so quickly again.

So he bought another ale and watched as Dandy’s friends started playing a card game that Dandy didn’t join in. Which didn’t stop him from giving the players tips seemingly at random and utterly unhelpful ones, judging by the player’s eyerolls and Dandy’s gleeful cackling.

All too soon, Dandy’s little game of distracting his friends got interrupted, when another man approached him from behind, tapping him on the shoulder. Geralt’s brows drew into a frown when Dandy flinched at the touch and before he knew it, Geralt’s hand had closed around the handle of his sword, ready to put himself between Dandy and that other man should the need arise.

But then the man whispered something in Dandy’s ear. The sudden shout of outrage and cheer coming from Dandy’s friends as they finished their game, was loud enough that Geralt couldn’t hear Dandy’s reply, but seconds later, the man, who had approached him, sat down next to Dandy, far too close for Geralt’s liking, but Dandy leaned into his touch, running his own hands up and down the man’s arms.

The sight sent a sharp pang of jealousy through Geralt’s chest. His jaw worked, but he couldn’t get himself to look away. Of course Dandy would flirt with other people. He had every right to have his fun and Geralt was a stranger to him. It was none of his business whom Dandy cosied up with.

It was just…he had spent so long being the only one Jaskier had turned his attentions to, with the bard reassuring him time and time again that he didn’t want anyone else, even when Geralt told him that he would understand if Jaskier chose to take other people to his bed. He had almost forgotten what it was like watching Jaskier touch strangers with obvious intent and lean into them to whisper sweet nothings into their ears. It was no easier watching Dandy do the same now.

Geralt might not be able to understand his whispers, but he had spent enough time with Jaskier to recognise the way Dandy’s posture changed, how he tipped his head to the side to reveal his neck to the other man, inviting him to press a kiss against the tender flesh.

An invitation that the stranger accepted with pleasure.

Geralt’s hands clenched and he had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop himself from doing something rash. He had no right to interfere. Not when Dandy was so clearly enjoying himself. Not when Geralt was nothing to him.

Still, his insides twisted painfully with something ugly and cruel, while every fibre of his being wished that he could be in that stranger’s stead; that he would get to feel what Dandy’s fingers felt like dancing across his skin, and learn how he tasted beneath his lips.

He knew it was unfair to Dandy. Geralt didn’t even know the man. All he knew was that he looked and moved and laughed like Jaskier had and that in some way he was Jaskier. But he must also be someone else. Yarrow had been his own person. That viscount that Geralt suspected had been Jaskier before him, had certainly been his own person, going his entire life without ever knowing Geralt.

He had no way of knowing who Dandy really was, no right to want of him what he had had with Jaskier.

Knowing that didn’t make it any easier to watch the stranger kiss his way up Dandy’s neck, brushing his hair to the side and whispering something into his ear that Dandy responded to with a shuddering intake of breath and an enthusiastic nod.

He quickly told his friends where he was going with his new and oh so charming acquaintance Fillip and that one of them should come get him in the morning. Geralt winced when Dandy’s friends hollered as Dandy grabbed his cane and stood up. The Fillip gently took Dandy’s free arm, which earned him a radiant smile from Dandy. A bitter taste filled Geralt’s mouth, as he watched them go. Jaskier had always been touchy and he had loved leaning onto Geralt as they had walked side by side.

Seeing Dandy lean onto someone else – a blonde stranger with a dazzling smile and who was so much more handsome than Geralt could ever be – made Geralt’s arms feel empty and cold.

Without Dandy, the tavern felt too small, too lifeless, too lonely. Geralt downed the rest of his drink to get rid of the bitter taste Dandy’s departure had left him with. It didn’t work. Not even Lambert’s moonshine would have been able to get the images of Dandy leaning into that other man out of Geralt’s head.

Geralt glowered at the empty tankard, as if it was to blame for Geralt’s cowardice and inner turmoil. Abruptly, he stood up. With Dandy gone, there was no reason for him to stay here any longer. He shouldn’t have stayed here that long anyway. It would have been for the best if he had just left once he knew that Dandy was safe.

Once outside of the tavern, he hesitated. The strange tug in his chest that had lead him to Yarrow’s grave all those years ago, told him to follow Dandy. But what good would that do? Everything about the idea of following him and the man he had chosen to spend his night with was wrong.

No, Geralt should just go and find a place where he’d be able to sleep, now that he had spent too much coin to be able to afford an inn anymore.

So he ignored the tug in his chest and the way all of his muscles tensed at the thought of not going after Dandy, and turned into a different street, one that would lead him out of the city to where he had left Roach.

Regret and that piercing longing for an embrace he wouldn’t get, were his only company as he walked through the city. After a while, he left the streets that were illuminated by lanterns and found himself in darker alleyways. No thug of petty thief would be able to get the jump on a witcher, but still, Geralt strained his ears and tensed his muscles as he passed through this part of the city. If not for his sake, then he at least wanted to make sure no muggers would be walking the streets this night and stumble across Dandy.

Sure enough, voices reached Geralt, distant at first, but then getting louder.

“Really, I could have sworn that we were supposed to take that turn to the right.” Laughter that couldn’t quite hide how strained it was. “I don’t think we’re going in the right direction.”

Geralt froze. It was Dandy’s voice. What was he doing here? Geralt had made sure he wouldn’t cross paths with him. To get here, Dandy and his companion must have taken a truly inconvenient and winding route.

“No, trust me,” another voice – Fillip’s? – replied. “I know where we’re going. You don’t need to worry.”

Geralt’s hackles rose. Part of him told him that he was overreacting, but another, stronger part felt that same dread creep up on him that he had always felt when he had realised that Jaskier hadn’t heeded his warnings and come along to see a monster for himself.

“Oh. Alright then. Of course I trust you.”

He shouldn’t. Dandy really, truly shouldn’t trust this man. But if he was still the same in a way as the bard who had approached a witcher without fear and had followed him into any danger, then there was little chance that Dandy didn’t mean those words.

As silent as a shadow, Geralt followed the sound of their voices, until he could see them at the far end of the seemingly endlessly long alley, Dandy still leaning against the blonde and holding his cane out in front of him as he walked.

But it wasn’t Dandy that Geralt’s narrowed eyes were fixated on. It was the other man, whose smile was no longer charming and warm. It was cold like a snake’s.

Was Dandy really that smitten that he didn’t see the way that expression screamed danger? He must be, for he didn’t show a single sign of wanting to pull away. Gullible, naïve, trusting Jaskier! Of all the traits that must carry over into another life, it had to be the one that would inevitably put him in danger.

Suddenly, Fillip stopped. Geralt couldn’t see Dandy’s expression beneath the shadow his hat threw onto his face, but his shoulders tensed.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, a hint of that trust still persistent in his tone, but now it was laden with unease. “You didn’t get lost, did you?”

“No. I’m exactly where I wanted to go.”

The discomfort in Dandy’s posture became even more apparent. “I think we should maybe go back. If you would be so kind as to show me the way back to my friends – “

“I don’t think so.”

Geralt quickened his silent steps, almost breaking into a run. Panic raced through his blood. He was still too far away to help, should the man decide to attack Dandy. Yet, he was close enough to be able to see how now Dandy, too, caught on to just how bad this situation was.

Dandy stiffened, when Fillip tightened his hold on his arm, before Dandy could even attempt to pull away.

Anger flared up in Geralt, that turned into ice-cold fear, when two more figured appeared from the shadows, the moonlight reflecting on the blade of a knife in one of the man’s hands.

“Easy there,” the armed newcomer sneered and let out a dirty laugh when Dandy flinched. “This doesn’t need to get ugly. Just give us your coin and we’ll be on our way.”

The men weren’t too big. The only reason they probably felt secure enough to attack Dandy was because they outnumbered him. Still, Dandy had his cane. He could at least try to fend them off and keep them at a distance, if only to buy himself enough time to run away. But Geralt’s silent pleas for Dandy to defend himself changed nothing. Dandy stood still and helpless as the men drew nearer.

“You really think I have coin with me?”

Geralt let out a silent curse when Dandy was stupid enough to laugh. The sound ended in a shocked gasp, when the man holding him yanked him around without warning. Dandy’s head flew to the side when the back of Fillip’s hand hit his face.

His hat fell off, landing in front of the feet of the bald man who hadn’t spoken until now. He deliberately stepped onto the hat, grinding his heel into it.

“You’re really telling us that someone with such fancy clothes doesn’t have coin?”

Silently, Geralt begged Dandy to not say anything that would get him into any more trouble. At least until Geralt got close enough to actually defend him.

If he provoked the men enough to use their knives – Geralt’s stomach churned at the thought. He couldn’t watch him die again. He couldn’t!

He was so close! Just a little more time and he’d be able to save him!

Dandy snorted, his shoulders already drawn up in a useless attempt to protect his head. “Those clothes are a costume. I am an actor. All the coin I had, I spent on my drink.” He flashed a grin, that looked a little off, not really directing it at either of the men. “But if you want to try your luck mugging me again, I advise you to do it after our premiere tomorr-“

A punch in the gut made Dandy cry out, the sound piercing Geralt’s ears. He doubled over.

The bald man who had punched him, grabbed him by the hair and pulled him back up, spitting in his face.

“I’d ask you if you think we look stupid, but you wouldn’t know, would you?”

“Oh, don’t worry, I am sure you look stupi- hey, what are you doing?”

The sound of Dandy’s pain was nothing compared to the cry that tore out of his throat now, when the bald thug grabbed his cane and ripped it away from him.

“Give that back!” Dandy thrashed in his assailant’s grip. “You can’t take that from me! I need it!” He staggered when Fillip let go of him without warning and pushed him to the side. “Give it back, please!”

Dandy’s pleas cut into Geralt like a knife. He was close. He was so close, just a few more steps and he would be with him –

The cane came crashing down on Dandy’s back. With a pained cry that tore Geralt’s chest open, Dandy went to his knees. The laughter of the men burned like acid in Geralt’s ears.

The man lunged out to take another swing with the cane. He never got the chance.

With a jump, Geralt threw himself between Dandy and the attacker. The cane hit him across the chest at the same time that his sword plunged into the attacker’s shoulder.

Geralt couldn’t hear his cry of pain, the sound of his blade tearing through his flesh or the noise the cane made when it fell to the ground, over the sound of Dandy’s whimpers. It enflamed something raging hot in his chest.

Geralt whirled around with a snarl that would send hardened soldiers running.

The man that had lured Dandy here blanched and reeled back, but not fast enough to escape Geralt’s sword. It painted a thin red stripe across his face.

The third attacker was the only one stupid enough to try and attack Geralt, slashing at him with his knife. One swing of Geralt’s sword and the smaller weapon clattered to the ground, the sound accompanied by an agonised scream when Geralt’s sword cut through the hand that had just held the weapon.

A growl rose in Geralt’s chest, animalistic and promising death to anyone who dared to lay another hand on Dandy.

The attackers tensed up, holding their bleeding wounds and staring at Geralt with wide, terrified eyes.

“Stay away from us, monster!” What should have been a shout came out as a terrified whisper. “Stay away or –“ Fillip’s eyes darted behind Geralt, where Dandy must still lie.

Geralt lifted his sword higher and took another menacing step towards the attackers. The simple gesture was threat enough. If any of them dared touch Dandy, he would cut them down.

He didn’t need to use his words to get that message across. For a tense second, the three men stood frozen in place, then they staggered back, running as fast as they could away from Geralt and the man he would protect with his life.

Geralt followed the men with his eyes until he was sure they wouldn’t come back, then slowly, he sheathed his sword and turned around with his hands held in front of him, praying it was enough to show Dandy that he didn’t mean him any harm.

But Dandy didn’t even look up at him. He still cowered on the ground, making himself as small as possible and shielding his head with his arms, as if he expected another attack.

Seeing him like this, so small, so afraid split Geralt’s heart in two. Never, in any lifetime that Geralt knew of, had Jaskier been afraid of him. And now here Dandy was, curling in on himself, his broken breathing mixing in with sobs.

Geralt swallowed thickly and crouched down as slowly as he could. Still, there was no reaction. His blood ran cold. Had he been too late? Maybe one of the attackers had landed a hit on Dandy’s head that Geralt hadn’t noticed.

His heart sank like a stone. No. No! He couldn’t have been too late. Not again, not when he had just found him again!

With a trembling hand, Geralt reached out and gently touched Dandy’s shoulder to turn him and see if there were any injuries Geralt could help with.

As soon as his hand touched him, Dandy shrank even further into himself and he let out a whimper. His whole body shook from his broken sobs.

“Please,” he gasped, squeezing his eyes close and burying his head even more in his arms, “Please don’t. Don’t hurt me, please!”

Geralt snatched his hand back as if burned. “I’m not going to hurt you. No one is. Those men are gone.”

Dandy’s trembling didn’t stop, but there was a miniscule shift in his body.

“Those men?” he asked tentatively, “You’re not one of them?”

Geralt’s brows drew together, before he schooled his face into a neutral expression. He couldn’t risk Dandy choosing this moment when Geralt scowled down at him, to open his eyes and see him for the first time, becoming even more terrified.

But Dandy kept his eyes firmly closed.

“No,” Geralt said as softly as he could. “I’m not. I made sure they won’t bother you again.”

For an endless-seeming moment, Dandy didn’t move, but he turned his head as if trying to hear if anyone else was around. Ever so slowly, Dandy relaxed, but not enough to let his guard down fully. Geralt couldn’t blame him. No one in their right mind would watch a witcher fight and not be terrified to be alone with him afterwards. If Geralt had ever thought differently, the first monster he had killed had taught him otherwise.

“Sorry.” Dandy rubbed a hand down his face, turning his face to the ground so that Geralt couldn’t see the tears, that he knew were there. The salt-scent was so strong that he could almost taste it. “I didn’t hear you coming. You were just suddenly there and then there were those sounds of a fight and I… I didn’t know what was going on.”

“It’s alright,” Geralt said, though the lie couldn’t have been more obvious. Nothing was alright. Geralt had terrified Dandy enough that he now wouldn’t even look at him, that he would rather cower at his feet than even raise his eyes to meet his. “I…” he swallowed, forcing the bitter words that tore his throat apart like swallowing glass, “I can leave if you want me to.”

Dandy remained quiet, the only indication that Geralt’s words had reached him was the hitch in his breath and the way he clenched his hands into fists.

Geralt wished he could help. He wished he hadn’t been such a damn coward and just approached Dandy in that tavern. If he had, none of this would have happened. Dandy would still be laughing instead of being blinded by tears. He would be sitting with his friends instead of lying broken in some alley. He might even have trusted Geralt enough to let him help. But as it was, Geralt had made sure that Dandy didn’t even dare accept his help for fear of what he might do to him.

With a sigh, Geralt stood up and took a couple of steps back. He couldn’t leave Dandy to fend for himself, but if he didn’t want Geralt anywhere near him, he would go away far enough that Dandy wouldn’t have to be afraid of Geralt attacking him. He could watch over him from the shadows.

Geralt had barely made it out of reach from Dandy, when Dandy moved, lifting his head and looking around, though not in the direction Geralt had gone.

“Are you still there?” The question came quietly, hesitantly. “Please stay.”

Geralt froze mid-movement. “I’m here.”

Dandy winced, but the movement was accompanied by a sigh. If Geralt hadn’t known any better, he would have said it sounded relieved.

Painfully slowly, Dandy pushed himself up onto all fours, then stopped. Geralt frowned.

“Are you hurt? Do you need help standing?”

“Ah, no. I…” Dandy reached out with his hand, letting it wander over the ground. “I just…I really need my cane back.”

Geralt blinked, taken aback. He must not have noticed it before, but apparently the cane wasn’t just an accessory but a walking aid. That must be why Dandy didn’t reach it, though all he had to do was stretch a little to get to it. He must have an old injury that would hurt from such a movement.

“Wait,” Geralt said, coming closer again. “I can get it for you, it’s just over –“

“No!” The tone of the shout was so final that Geralt stopped right where he was. “Don’t touch it. I got it.”

Geralt watched in confusion as Dandy groped more frantically for the cane, until his fingers finally closed around it. Geralt could practically see the tension fall off of him as he held the cane close like it was the most precious thing to him.

After a moment, Dandy took a deep breath and made to stand up. His face contorted into a grimace and he winced at the movement.

“Are you alright?” Geralt asked without second thought. He grimaced at how stupid the question was.

Dandy hissed out a sharp breath through his teeth. “My back hurts. Really bad. Damn, that guy didn’t need to hit me that hard.”

He moved again, gasping in pain once more.

“Let me help.” Geralt was at his side in a flash, holding out his hand for Dandy to take. “I don’t want you to hurt yourself trying to stand on your own.”

Dandy hesitated for a second, then he nodded. Still, he made no move to take Geralt’s hand. Unsure what to do, Geralt reached for Dandy’s arm.

“May I?” He asked in as soothing a voice as he could, his hand hovering right above Dandy.

“Yes.”

Carefully, Geralt closed his hand around Dandy’s elbow. His heart stuttered in his chest, his mind overtaken by the thought that they were touching. Jaskier was alive and Geralt could actually touch him! He didn’t disappear, he was really there!

Geralt clenched his jaw and beat back those thoughts. There would be time for that later. Right now, the only important thing was that Dandy would be alright.

With the same gentleness with which Geralt had helped up Jaskier when he had gotten too old to stand on his own, he guided Dandy until he stood, while Dandy kept his head low and his cane clutched to his chest tightly.

Geralt’s hands lingered on Dandy’s arm, while his eyes darted over his body, making sure he wasn’t hurt. Apart from a couple of scratches and his back pain, he seemed to be fine.

Although it took inhuman strength to break the contact between them, Geralt let go of Dandy again.

Dandy let out a shuddering breath when Geralt drew back and ever so slowly, he lifted his head.

Geralt’s heart was pounding painfully against his ribs. Without meaning to, he leaned closer, urged on by a sudden desperation to see Dandy’s– Jaskier’s! – eyes again.

He couldn’t think straight. His thoughts were a swirling storm, all centred around that endless blue. Why was Dandy moving with such agonizing slowness? Why –

Their eyes met.

Geralt let out an involuntary gasp that could have been a sob or a whispered name. Dandy’s eyes were beautiful. Deep and blue and… and wrong.

Geralt’s heart dropped. Something was off about his eyes. They were the same blue he remembered, but the way Dandy was looking at Geralt…it felt as if Dandy was looking right through him. The moment they held each other’s gazes was no longer than a heartbeat, then Dandy’s eyes wandered higher, facing somewhere slightly to Geralt’s left.

“Thank you,” Dandy said quietly and gave him a hint of a smile. If felt wrong too. Beautiful, because it was Dandy smiling, but slightly off, as if he only knew how an expression of gratefulness should look from a description in a book.

Geralt couldn’t speak, couldn’t move.

The rounded end of the cane hit the ground with a soft thunk that rang in Geralt’s ears like thunder.

All this time. All these years Geralt had spent searching the continent for Jaskier, burning with the need to see him again, not once had he thought about the possibility that Jaskier wouldn’t be able to see him when the time came. But there was no mistaking it.

Dandy was blind.

#reincarnation au #geraskier #my writing #geralt #jaskier #fic #witcher fic #fanfic #angst #assault #geraltxjaskier

[chungledown-bimothy]

Keep Talking, Oh, Keep Talking

So, I know it’s been FOREVER since I posted any writing, and that’s mostly because I was working on this @sanderssantas​ fic for @mewithanie​! So sorry about how long it’s been, and hopefully I’ll be posting things again slightly more often lol

I had so much fun writing this! Happy holidays, mewithanie! <3

AO3     Masterlist

Summary: Patton and Virgil were deliriously in love and didn’t think they could get any happier. Enter Logan, Virgil’s tutor.

Warnings: alcohol use, slight intoxication. 

Pairing(s): established moxiety into analogicality

Word Count: 2,647 (plus 2 fake-texts images)

Tag List:  @ren-allen​​ @ccecode​​ @emo-sanders-sides-loving-unicorn​​ @ilovemygaydad​​ @bloodropsblog​​ @funsizedgremlin​​ @raygelkitty​​ @roxiefox23​​ @thomasthesandersengine​

Patton loved his boyfriends. He loved them so much that sometimes, when he thought about them, his heart would race, his knees would go weak, and his head would spin. Especially since Logan joined the relationship.

Patton and Virgil met the first day of college, in their shared psychology class. It wasn't long until they started dating, and a year later, they moved in together. Patton had known for years that he was polyamorous, but he kept that to himself, because he was blissfully happy with Virgil, and it was never relevant. Until the second semester after they moved in together, that is.

--------------------------

Eight Months Ago

Fifteen minutes later, Virgil walked through the front door of the apartment and was immediately caught in a bear hug.

"Well hello to you too," Virgil laughed, despite his terrible mood.

"What, a guy can't be excited to see his favorite stormcloud?" Patton looked up at him, his expression just a little bit too innocent.

"Patton, what did you do?" Virgil questioned, remembering the cupcake tower Patton made the night before their first set of final exams together and the time he came home from his first therapy session to find the living room covered in fairy lights.

"Nothing major; I promise. Come look!" Patton took him by the hand and practically dragged him into the kitchen. "See? Just a lasagna. Let's eat while you tell me about your meeting and this mysterious Logan guy."

Virgil got a couple plates and served the lasagna as he started talking. "Turns out, he's in my class. I've mentioned front-and-center-nerd before, yeah?" Patton laughed.

"Dresses more professionally than the teacher, kinda cute but also seems stuck up?"

"Yep, that's the guy. He's a lot chiller than I thought he'd be. Anyway, we're gonna meet after class every Wednesday for the rest of the semester."

"I'm sure it's gonna go great!"

Five Months Ago

"Hi, I'm Patton! Nice to meet you; Virgil has said such wonderful things about you!" Patton half-yelled over the music playing at the bar.

"Oh, erm, hello. I am Logan, although clearly you already knew that. Virgil has spoken highly of you as well." Logan fought the impulse to adjust his tie. Patton opened his mouth to say something else, but Virgil arrived with their drinks, passing them out as he sat down.

"Alright, we've got a whiskey neat for Logan, some IPA that the bartender recommended for you, Pat, and a rum and Coke for me. Honestly, though, Patton, I don't get how you can drink those. I had a sip of yours on my way over, and it was awful."

Patton laughed. "Yeah, they're not for everyone, but I like 'em! And it's hard to drink too many of them, unlike your drinks, so I don't get super drunk- my tolerance is garbage. Anyway," he continued with a mock glare at his boyfriend, "we aren't here to make fun of the way I drink, we're here to celebrate Virgil!" He raised his glass.

"Indeed. It has been an honor working with you this past semester, Virgil, and I am proud to see your hard work pay off," Logan added, raising his glass as well.

Virgil blushed and refused to look at either of them. "I barely got a B+, that's hardly a reason to celebrate," he mumbled.

"Falsehood. Truthfully, when we began working together, I doubted that you would be able to achieve higher than a C. You worked incredibly hard, not only on the subject matter, but on how you approached studying. Your dedication is truly inspiring."

"Hear hear! Virge, I know how hard this class has been on you. You've worked that cute butt of yours off for it, and that alone deserves celebration, even before you take into account how much that hard work paid off! But if it helps, we can call this a general post-finals celebration, okay?" Patton was rewarded with a grateful smile.

"You guys deserve to be celebrated too. Logan, you have been so incredibly patient with me; I know that I'm not exactly the most pleasant to be around when I get frustrated, so, thanks for sticking with me, I guess. And Pat, you've had my back since day one. I love you more than I could ever say, baby." He pressed a sweet kiss to Patton's cheek, and Logan was suddenly very interested in his drink.

"Loooogan has anyone told you how pretty you are?" Patton hit his hands on the table, almost knocking over the glass that once contained a strawberry daiquiri; he'd decided he wanted something sweeter after two beers.

"No no no no, the prettiest one here is Virgil. Those cheekbones have got to be illegal somewhere," Logan wasn't any more sober, two whiskeys in. "And his face when he's focusing on studying is just the cutest thing everrr."

"Oh I know! Have you seen him do the thing where he sticks his tongue out a little bit when he's really concentrating?" Patton was practically bouncing in his seat, continuing to be a danger to the glasses.

"Dear Newton yes! I had to excuse myself and get a drink of water the first time I saw him do it."

"Wait, that's why you left? I thought it was because you were getting frustrated with how long it was taking me to get it!" Virgil chimed in, astonished.

"Sounds like he was some sort of frustrated alright," Patton muttered.

"Look. We all know that Virgil is an incredibly attractive man, and I am a simple homosexual. That said, Patton, I apologize for the… less than appropriate thoughts I may have had before I knew that he was in a relationship at all, let alone one as objectively adorable as yours."

Patton giggled. "No worries, Lolo! Like you said, my man is an entire three-course meal, and it would be silly of me to hold natural, human thoughts against you! And besides, you weren't the only one in those study sessions with some interesting thoughts, right Virgey?"

"Oh my god Patton I cannot believe you just said that!" Virgil hid his flaming blush behind his hands.

"Oops! Sorry, V!"

"You- you're okay with that? Your boyfriend and a stranger having lewd thoughts about each other?" Logan asked.

"Well yeah! I'm not the jealous type, and I trust Virgil. What's important to me is open and honest communication, and he told me about his attraction to you almost immediately. Plus, in all honesty, I found it kinda hot, especially once he showed me a picture of you."

Logan looked to Virgil and raised an eyebrow. Virgil game the same look to Patton, who, after a moment of confusion and then realization, nodded slightly and leaned back in his chair. Once Patton gave his blessing, Virgil leaned in and kissed Logan, soft and unsure. After they separated, Logan approached Patton and, after receiving another nod of consent, pressed a similar kiss to his lips.

The next morning

"So… can we talk about what happened last night?" Patton asked sweetly over breakfast.

"Oh my god are you actually not okay with it? Patton, I'm so sorry I shouldn't have-"

"Hey, Virgil, no, I really did mean that it was okay. More than okay, even. In fact, I think now is a good time to tell you that I'm polyamorous. I had a lot of fun hanging out with Logan last night, and I'd like to get to know him better. And clearly you are both into each other. I love you so much, and I just want you to be happy. If you want to, I think at least a conversation with Logan about it couldn't hurt."

Virgil sat in silence, sipping his coffee occasionally, for several minutes before speaking. "Pat, I love you more than I can possibly say. I'm honestly not surprised that you're polyam; you have so much love to give. I, uh, I actually am too. So, uh, I guess I'll call Logan? See if he wants to get lunch or something?"

"Aww yay! Okay, I'm gonna go take a shower real quick." Patton kissed Virgil quickly on the cheek on his way out of the room.

Virgil took a steadying breath and took out his phone.

     -

Logan straightened his tie and cleared his throat. "If I am understanding this correctly, you are both polyamorous and… wish for me to join your relationship?"

"Not so formally, but yeah? Last night, it was clear we all find each other hot. Which, like, duh, you're both gorgeous and sometimes I look pretty okay. Not now, Pat." Virgil preempted Patton's interruption without looking away from Logan. "I like you a lot, and I think you and Patton would also get along really well. So, uh, yeah, this is us asking you out. Not asking for any sort of commitment or anything, just hanging out and going on dates and stuff. You know, normal dating stuff. Just… with two of us."

"Only if you want to! And if you wanted to just date Virgil, I'd be completely okay with that too, but I had a lot of fun last night, and I'd love to get to know you better."

A tense moment of silence later, Logan spoke. "Let me begin by saying how flattered I am by your interest, both of you. While I am… inclined to accept your invitation to date both of you, I have never put much thought into my own feelings about polyamory for myself. Obviously, it is a completely normal and rational thing; my hesitation is in how I might fit into your so well-established relationship. Additionally, feelings do not come easily to me, and I find them exceedingly frustrating trying to understand. I have been reliably informed that this makes me a poor romantic partner." He took a breath and adjusted his tie.

"I have noticed that you are both quite vocally and physically publicly affectionate with each other, and I wonder whether my reticence with such displays would leave you unhappy with me. I have historically struggled to show adequate affection to just one person; I cannot imagine I would be able to give you both the kind of affection you seem to crave. In short, while I would like to accept, I currently cannot see it ending in anything but significant emotional distress for all of us. I apologize, most sincerely."

"I think I can safely speak for both of us when I say that we appreciate your honesty," Patton began gently. "Can I address some of your points?" Logan gave him a confused look, but nodded. "Thank you! So, it seems like your big concern is that you're afraid your emotional reticence would in some way hurt us or leave us unsatisfied. Am I understanding that right?" He waited for another nod before continuing. "To be honest, Lo, that's just silly. Are you familiar with Gary Chapman's concept of love languages?" Logan shook his head.

"Chapman posited that there are five ways people experience and express love- gifts, quality time, acts of service, words of affirmation, and physical touch- and everyone prefers to give and receive one or two of them over the others. Mine is words of affirmation, and Virgil's is physical touch; that's why we are as outwardly affectionate as we are. Trying to force a partner to 'speak' your language and not their own is just going to make everyone unhappy; healthy relationships require everyone involved to understand what the others need and want. We would never try to force you into anything you aren't comfortable with. We want to date you, Logan, not some version of you that pretends to be something or someone you aren't. If you let us, we'd love to learn your love language and not ask or expect anything else of you."

"Also," Virgil chimed in, "as to your worry about how you'd fit? Not a worry at all. I love Patton so much, and his energy and positivity makes me feel so good most of the time, but sometimes it can be... a bit much. He's wonderful at giving me space when I want it, but I know that I'd enjoy having someone else around who's more grounded. On the other hand, I remember quite a few study sessions that got diverted by you going on a tangent about something you love. If you think that passion isn't something Patton is going to join you in, you're incredibly wrong. And I think that his energy will help draw you out of that thick shell of yours, while I'll always be a more down-to-earth realist with you. I think we'd all be great for each other, if you're willing to give us the chance to show you. Only if you want to, though. One word, and we'll shut up about it forever." He gave Logan an anxious smile.

"In the face of such reasonable responses to my concerns, I suppose I have no choice but to gladly accept." Virgil and Patton both silently melted at the pure joy in Logan's smile. Well, Virgil was silent. Patton let out a squeal of delight that only dogs could hear.

---------------------

Present

Patton loved his boyfriends so much, just remembering the beginning of their story made him dizzy. Wait. No. Bad dizzy. I need to- he collapsed on the bathroom floor with a resounding THUD.  

-

THUD

Virgil jumped out of his seat. "Logan? Patton??" he called as he ran from their bedroom to the living room.

"Patton? Virgil?" Logan shouted at the same time. They met in the living room.

"Shit, where's Patton? PATTON!" Virgil yelled.

"It sounded like it came from the bathroom." Logan had barely finished his sentence before they both started running. They skidded to a halt outside the closed door; Virgil knocked.

"Patton? Are you in there? Are you okay?"

Three seconds of silence later, Logan knocked. "Patton, we are coming in." They opened the door to find him collapsed on the floor.

"Patton, can you hear us? Patton??" Virgil fell to his knees, checking for breathing and a pulse. "He's got a weak pulse, but it's there, and he's breathing okay. I don't- what do we do, Lo?" Virgil's voice was barely more than a shaky squeak.

Logan, on the other hand, spoke with cool, detached clarity. "Assuming that Patton collapsed due to a loss of consciousness, he has been unconscious for approximately thirty seconds. If he is out for another minute, we will call 911. In the meantime, go get a glass of water and all the pillows from the living room. Quickly, Verge. We need to get him back." They locked eyes and saw mirrored concern and panic. Virgil turned and ran to the kitchen. He was back in 45 seconds, and found Logan holding up Patton's groggy, but conscious, head.

"Virgil, you're back. Excellent. Here, give me a couple of pillows." He tucked them under his head gently, while Virgil knelt down beside him and took his hand. Only then did he notice how much his own were shaking.

"Patton, are you okay? What happened?"

"Mmf, dunno. Got dizzy. Are you guys okay?" Patton mumbled.

"Patton, of- of course we are okay; you're the one who fell. We should get you into bed. Do you think you can stand?" Logan asked.

"I- I don't think so, not quite yet." Logan and Virgil once again met eyes in a silent conversation.

"Okay, Pat, knees up, I'm gonna carry you." With an ease that surprised and slightly aroused Logan, Virgil picked Patton up, placed a soft kiss to his forehead, and carried him to the bedroom. "Let's get you to bed, baby; we'll take good care of you. You're gonna be just fine," he said softly into Patton's hair.

Once they got him to bed, they tucked him in, Logan made chicken noodle soup for when Patton felt up to it, and they gave him all of the cuddles he could possibly want. Which is, of course, an unlimited amount.

#analogicality #moxiety #analogical #logicality #logan sanders #patton sanders #virgil sanders #my writing #sanders sides fanfiction

[nieldiaries-blog]

The girl with a pen

Indranil Banerjee

It was a shiny morning, I  was heading for work  like an usual day ,but something caught me in between that day ,  a part of the world which is never seen or seen but ignored and that day one of came to me tried.She was roughly 4 years old, torn dress,  shaggy hairs and her eyes wanting a lot of things she got in these four years. She came to me and asked ” Anna please take one,  its just 5 rupees,  god will bless you if you buy this  ” I was astonished I had no words, but took two pens from that kid,  who never knew what a blessing was.She had a shattered dress, empty stomach, hoping for some food and for a better life, she gave the pens and smiled, I told her to keep the change ” thanks anna ” .and she went away in search of something she could never get at that age.I have been traveling through that hope farm signal for the last 5 years, but I haven’t come across such a scene.It was heart bothering even after the signal went green, I stood there to see where she is going, having that scene was more disturbing than looking at her.I could see her mother, breastfeeding her small kid, having no idea where she was what was she for, but being a mother she could not help, she had.I crossed the road to enquire, but I could see a strong disapproval in the lady ‘s face . “please don’t talk sir simply, this is our life”.The whole day in office I was thinking about that face.The evening I came back I could see the same girl asking for a pen to everyone.I went to her as a stranger and she asked me and suddenly she understood that I was her morning customer and she denied.I asked to give her 5 pens and later enquired whether she is willing to give me all the pens. To her answer, she denied saying she won’t sell all the pens today since they have to earn money tomorrow as well and if today she sells everything her Appa will take everything and will drink.” I don’t want any problems, please take tomorrow Anna”.I wanted to know the entire story and had a lot of doubts.I asked her, whether any third person is telling her to do .she smiled and said “No anna”.I couldn’t ask much about her life, as she was much young for all this.I came home having no idea, what to do with those really long pens. Wanting to know a lot of things I went to that same place the very next day, but I couldn’t find her I  waited for her half n hour she wasn’t there.I did the same thing for an entire week but she couldn’t be found out again in that signal .later I got to know they had been removed from that place by police.I couldn’t digest that and I hoped that she might be somewhere nearby, so one day I went in search of that pen girl and suddenly it happened to me that I saw a face, same torn dress holding pens in hand asking for it everywhere.  Yes, it was she I went down and went for her “How are you” she could recognize me I asked her, “why did you go? my friends wanted your pen, so I am here to buy you’re all the pens, would you give me? “Nodding head indicated she didn’t want to and said, ” I don’t know”.I asked her ” are you hungry ” without saying anything I took her to a nearby shop   and bought Idli  for her entire family and in this way I could, get a chance to talk to her mother and  I started asking what was  the  entire story, before that she asked whether I was married , I said no , and to that she said ” never do that by  mistake ” .after talking to her for an hour I got to know she was from Chapra District Bihar,, she was married to her husband forcefully and to fulfill his sexual desires further he has aborted her more than 5 times , last 3 months back she underwent an abortion .she had the only daughter who was involved in that pen business .she earns 100 Rs a day and for that she gets 20 Rs and rest all is taken by his ” Mard” .I asked why don’t you run away, what makes you being here, run with your girl and get a life,” I don’t want my daughter to get sold ” I had no words but to come out.I  never knew I was living in 21 at century and such a marginalized society still existed in silicon city of India.Days passed and I forgot her, I forgot the entire story,  but it was one day when I saw her again with same pens. This time I was irritated, not with she was selling pens but, she was getting scolded by a lanky fellow, scolding her for not selling properly.I objected and straight went  in rescue of her, I asked her father ” You don’t seem to be decent isn’t it, you are putting your daughter first in this and again you are scolding to this he gave a very lame answer ” she is born for this ,ask her mother right there , I told her to throw this also , she didn’t listen ” .being  not able to take all this ,I told him to stop warmed him that I will complain to women’s commission and police and for that he will have to face consequences .He laughed and said “Sir no one recognizes us as a human being in this city and you are talking about some commission. One time food and something to cover ourselves makes us happy, and you are talking about big things, sir, there are thousands of Vagabonds like me in these cities who have left hopes with their lives and are surviving like this.Go, sir, live your life.We are just like trash in this society,  one day  we will also  be curbed off along with this trash lying there.”, an utter silence indicated he didn’t want to talk anymore and I could see tears in his eyes, being not able to take all this, I moved out. Later when I came home a lot of questions surrounded me  and yes, they were horrible” Are we, living in an era where people are treated like this ,the society marginalizes them so much that they put their young ones to a death game business every day, we are  so busy that we  cannot lend a hand to this so-called marginalized society to come up, ,but still we ignore them and I too did  that day after that , but the very next day I saw the same girl standing near the signal but this time she had  a smile on her face not because she had  got a home to live or a new dress to wear, but today, it was her father selling the pens .And the signal turned green,  it made my day. I understood, that day the value of a pen, a pen that can make our life and the same can ruin it.Its been four months, every day whenever I pass hope farm  signal, I look for that family, they might have been taken off or I don’t know what happened to them ,they could not be seen anywhere or I should say I never took  an effort to search for them and again they were curbed off from so-called 21 st century era.

[csnews]

This baby sperm whale was tangled in ocean trash for 3 years

Craig Welch - January 2, 2019

A thick strand of rope, a wayward piece of quarter-inch cord from a fishing net, dangled off the tail of a young sperm whale. To the untrained eye, the line looked harmless—a lasso cinched near the base of the animal's fluke. But Gero knew the rope was a killer.

The photographs emailed from a colleague showed the heavy rope weighing down the animal's tail. That could prevent her from diving, which is how sperm whales hunt food. As she grew, the constriction would also slice through her flesh, strangling tissue like a garrote. The line might even amputate her fluke, though infection or starvation would probably do her in first.

At home in Ottawa, Gero pushed back from the computer. He called his wife and tried not to cry.

Digit the sperm whale was not quite four, but Gero had known her family for years. Each spring for a decade the Canadian behavioral ecologist had abandoned his own brood to spend months with these whales in the Caribbean Sea near the tiny West Indies island nation of Dominica. Though not yet 40, the assistant professor at Aarhus University in Denmark was rapidly becoming the world's foremost expert on baby sperm whales. Digit and her relatives were his star subjects.

Digit's very existence was significant. Thousands of sperm whales traverse the world's oceans. But 12 of the 16 whale families that returned each year to this stretch of the Caribbean were dying off. Each family could be down to a single whale in just 15 years.

Also, sperm whale families are matrilineal. Adult males eventually get cast out, and females bear the exclusive burden of rearing the young. For years, the family had produced a string of males. Three of them—Thumb, Tweak, and Enigma—had died already. Scar would soon disappear.

The family needed a female calf.

So Digit's arrival in 2011 left Gero's research team ecstatic. The crew watched Digit wean herself from her mother, Fingers. They cheered when she flipped her fluke up for her first deep dive. With Digit's arrival, the most-studied sperm whale family in the world seemed poised to carry on.

Then, in 2015, Gero received the images.

Sociable leviathans

In literature, sperm whales are ship-splintering beasts—monsters of "inscrutable malice," as Ahab seethed in Herman Melville's Moby Dick. In reality, that is far from true.

The world's largest toothed whales have the animal kingdom's biggest brains. The deep-diving nomads share membership in clans that can number in the thousands. Each clan chatters in its own dialect using a unique set of click patterns. These whales are social and playful. They roll and rub against each other near the surface. Some engage in hide-and-seek games, swimming circles around scientists' research boats and rolling sideways to eye the inhabitants. Sperm whales also are quite curious, especially when spying unfamiliar debris.

Gero, a National Geographic Explorer, could guess what had happened to Digit. Caribbean fishermen anchor nets to the sea floor to lure marlin, tuna, and mahi mahi. Whales rarely disturb that fixed gear, but container and cruise ships often accidentally shred it. Flapping ghost nets draw inquisitive creatures, and those loose lines are to whales what spider webs are to flies. While there are no reliable global statistics, at least 76 large whales, including humpbacks, blues, and minkes, got trapped in nets, lines, or debris in 2017—just in United States waters. And the vast majority of entanglements go unseen.

Gero suspects Digit simply snagged a loop of loose line. Three other whales in the region had recently been snared by fishing gear. One, a mother with a broken jaw, was forced to drag her dead calf for days after both got trapped in the same nest of lines. (The mother's injured mouth suggested she'd tried gnawing the calf free.)

Gero and colleagues reached out to Michael Moore, senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. He had helped untangle endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Moore's assessment was bleak. The pictures showed Digit's noose was tight. Only a dozen feet of line trailed her—too little to attach buoys to keep a deep-diving sperm whale near the surface. That was essential for rescuers to work. Without more line, a team would struggle to get close.

"There was so little gear on her," Moore says. "It was not going to be a slam dunk."

There were other complications. Dominica isn't New England. There wasn't a trained disentanglement crew for hundreds of miles. Getting one would take money and time. No one knew how much time they had.

"We were confronted with the long-term, chronic, slow death of an animal we see every day—one we thought we'd know forever," Gero says.

It felt personal.

Getting to know them

Gero had studied under sperm whale guru Hal Whitehead, at Halifax's Dalhousie University. Whitehead believed these sophisticated leviathans deserved the same respect as primates. Whitehead mostly studied adults. As a student, Gero wanted to learn about the young: Which family members raised them? When did they first dive deep? How did they learn their dialect—and from whom?

So in 2005, the young scientist arrived in Dominica aboard Whitehead's 40-foot research sailboat, Balaena. There he found a gathering of whales he would dub the Group of Seven, named for a collective of famed Canadian painters.

The Group of Seven tended to spend weeks near this coast. They were spotted more often than other whales. That first year, Gero's team spent an astonishing 40 days cataloging this one family's behavior.

"We'd go into shore and get groceries and come back and we'd still see the same animals just offshore," Gero says. "That's unheard of."

It's why their names seem flip—Gero needed to tell them apart, but had never expected he'd see them again.

As with Jane Goodall's chimpanzees and Dian Fossey's mountain gorillas, intimate access revealed each animal's distinct habits and personality. Over time, Gero began to see these whales as individuals.

Fingers appeared to be in charge. She usually broadcast the "coda," four clicks that identified the family to other whales, like a surname. When her offspring, Thumb, died, Fingers helped watch over others' young. She steered clear of people and was known for spectacular dives, muscling her fluke high before plunging straight down.

"It's hard to describe how beautifully she flukes to someone who doesn’t watch hundreds of whales do it," says Gero, whose research is conducted through Aarhus University's Marine Bioacoustics Laboratory. "It feels like she is demonstrating to others the way."

Fingers' niece, Pinchy, was mother to Scar, who was so comfortable with humans he'd become a star in Dominica's swim-with-whales tourism industry. There was sickly Quasimodo, and Mysterio, so named because she appeared rarely.

Gero felt a growing kinship with the cetaceans. "The whales were becoming a part of my life," he says. "My kids knew these animals by name even though they'd never met them."

The whales prompted him to rethink his views on conservation. In many sperm whale families, calves get milk from other calves' mothers. The Group of Seven's young only got milk from their actual mothers. If behaviors and communication were unique to clans or families, didn't that suggest conservation should be about more than total population numbers? Wasn't each clan special in its own right?

In 2011 a documentary crew arrived, led by a filmmaker who'd co-produced the Fossey biopic, Gorillas in the Mist. When Fingers gave birth to a new calf that week, Gero knew what to call her.

He named the new calf Digit, after Fossey's favorite silverback. Only later would he recall what humans did to Fossey's gorilla.

Wasting away

Before arriving in Dominica for the 2015 research season, Gero had only seen Digit's injuries in emailed pictures. In person things looked even worse. Before she got tangled, the young whale had just started swimming and diving alone. Now she only appeared with adults. She was reserved instead of curious. She kept her distance from boats and people.

"It was like she was trying to say, 'This is all your fault, you humans,'" says Pernell Francis, who has worked with Gero.

Gero could see the rope gouging her flesh. More troubling still: Digit couldn't raise her fluke. The rope was creating too much drag. As he'd feared, she could not dive deep, which was hampering her hunt for squid.

Word of Digit's condition spread. Ted Cheeseman, who took clients swimming with whales, raised money to hire a professional disentanglement team. Whale advocates whispered about cutting the rope themselves. Gero knew that was too dangerous.

"There are Internet videos where people have done it, but they're bloody lucky they didn't kill themselves," Moore says. A trained rescuer would die in 2017, after being struck by a whale he'd just freed.

Eventually someone took the plunge anyway. The diver shortened Digit's rope, but could not cut the noose. The shorter line reduced the drag on Digit's tail, but now even less cord remained for pros to work with.

Ultimately, no rescue crew would be coming. Cheeseman ended up using the money he'd raised to buy and stash equipment for future rescues. He paid to assemble and train a future Dominica disentanglement crew.

Digit, meanwhile, grew ever thinner. No longer able to catch her own food, she returned to being nursed by Fingers.

"It was like watching your child go back to crawling," Gero says.

People care

One afternoon in Dominica a boat zipped by and a woman shouted: "Hey Shane, how can I help Digit?" Gero was taken aback. Even strangers were worried.

That night Gero ate on the deck of his research boat, beneath a dangling headlamp. The Group of Seven was in trouble. That family was now on the brink, down to just three whales: Fingers, Pinchy, and Digit. But the stranger's query was a reminder that Digit's story held real power.

While humans are attached to dolphins and orcas, many can't even identify a sperm whale. Fewer still understand the gantlet of threats these nomads face: pollution, climate change, ship strikes, fishing gear.

"But people can understand a mom caring for a kid who is suddenly facing a chronic injury," Gero says.

Gero vowed something useful would come of Digit's wounds.

Over the next several years, Gero expanded his research's focus on conservation. He wrote and lectured more. He spoke at museums and even mentioned Digit's quandary during a TEDx Talk. He and a team mapped whale and vessel movements and urged the government to restrict ship traffic to areas that whales avoided. Gero hoped that might help fishing-boat operators find ship-free places to set nets.

"Digit changed the whole perspective of our project," Gero says. No longer was whale behavior his sole interest. Now he asked: "What can we do to ensure we all co-exist?"

Still he couldn't help Digit. She had not resumed fluking. Her flesh began to grow around the rope, closing over it. Gero suspected he was watching Digit die.

Miracle

Then last spring he saw her again from the bow of Balaena. Days into the 2018 field season, Digit popped to the surface. Gero knew immediately that everything had changed.

The outline of Digit's spine was no longer so visible. She had gotten plump. Looking closely, Gero could see abrasions and marks where the rope had rubbed. The line itself was simply gone.

A few months earlier, a colleague in Dominica had emailed to say he'd heard Digit had lost her rope. Gero had been hopeful, but skeptical. Now as Digit moved to slip below the surface, Gero's entire team fell silent. Digit flipped her fluke and dove. A cheer erupted from the boat. After three years, Digit was free.

Later, the scientist and his team would attach a tracking device to Digit's back. When they eventually reviewed the tag's data, Gero was overwhelmed. Digit was diving more than 3,000 feet. She was slurping up squid. Digit was behaving like a healthy seven-year-old whale.

No one knows how she got free. Cheeseman suspects that sunlight, time, and pressure weakened Digit's line until it finally broke. Moore says if Digit swam near a sharp rock or crevice, she might have scraped the deteriorating rope off. Other whales might even have helped.

"If someone told me two sperm whales had a tug of war over the line and it broke, I'd believe it," Moore says.

Gero has another idea. He saw fresh scars on Digit's fluke. He suspects predators may have attacked her and unwittingly ripped off the gear.

But Gero knows he'll never be certain. He almost prefers it that way.

"It's easy to forget that that there are thousands of species right next to us with rich and complicated worlds, living their lives in parallel with our own," Gero says.

A new generation of Eastern Caribbean sperm whale was swimming free. Knowing that would be enough.

#news #long article #whale #cetacean #sperm whale #wild #entanglement #conservation

[belledamsceno]

The Good Neighbor (Part 3)

Prompt: A series of unfortunate events lead to you being in a journey with a total stranger. Inspired by the prompt #11 on Kait’s 5k milestone AU writing challenge. “Why do you keep trying to mow the lawn while I’m sleeping? Fuck you!”

Pairing: Steve x Reader

Warnings: Sickness, swearing, feeling uncomfortable… *If you do feel triggered by anything else, let me know so I can add here and warn other readers!

Word Count: 1,348

Author’s Note: What about some backstories?? As always, if you see any words that could/should be replaced or sentences that could be better put together please feel free to point it out! English is not my first language and this will help me improve ;)

Part 1  —  Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

The car came to a stop on the parking lot of a little restaurant, Steve had clearly parked as close from the entrance as he could. You heard him get off the car and took a deep breath before opening your door and getting out.

When you stood up your head felt like a rock and your legs like jello. You closed your eyes trying to focus and repeated in you head that ‘you could do it’, you would get to the table no matter how slow and paused it’d have to be.

You felt a hand hold your waist and your eyes bugged as you pushed the person far… well, not far… Steve was heavy enough your push only made him give a step back “What the hell are you doing?!?”

“I’m sorry, you seamed a little out of balance I was going to help you inside”

“I can do it by myself.”

He nodded mouthing a 'sorry’ and let you go ahead, the little jump scare woke your senses and you could walk a little steadier, still you were secretly thankful for Steve to still be following you close by, clearly ready to catch you.

The place was a little stuffy, and if the table right next to the door wasn’t empty you didn’t know how much further you would be able to go once inside.

Steve was fast to ask for a water, and thankfully the waiter didn’t take long, you didn’t know if it was efficiency, the dead look on your face or the over dramatic urgency in which Steve asked for it.

Any way, the cold feeling of the liquid going down your throat was enough to give you new life and you opened your eyes to see Steve handing you a menu

“I know reading will probably get you dizzy… dizzier” you gave him a dirty look and he smiled “but I really don’t know what to order for you…”

You took it and started to search for something that wasn’t making your stomach turn.

“I really don’t know you, period.”

Now it was your time to laugh “What do you suggest, do you want to play 20 questions? Become the best of friends?”

“Why not?”

You knitted your brows, where was he going with that? Okay, you were also dying of curiosity so you might as well take advantage of this “Well, I’m gonna start then…”

He leaned back on his chair, ready for whatever you were going to ask him, the waiter came to your table to see if you already had your orders, which gave you some more time to think, you wanted to ask something that would get him talking, one question that would give you more than one answer…

When the waiter left you had something in mind, it wasn’t the perfect question, but Steve looked like the kind of person that wouldn’t give a short answer, that and you were genuinely intrigued “Do you live alone?”

He chuckled as if he knew you were going to ask that, which, not gonna lie, pissed you off a little “Not exactly…”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“The house in front of yours? Yes, in that one I life alone, but…” Done, now he was talking; You leaned back in your chair and smirked in triumph as he continued “I also live in a compound in New York and let me tell you, is very hard to found yourself alone there…”

Okay, that didn’t exactly answered your questions, in fact it gave you many more “What do mean? How can you live in a compound and have a house? How old are you?… What do you do for a living?”

“Shouldn’t we take turns? I think is my time to as-”

“We’re not playing a game, I’m questioning you… If you want to make a question be quick and do it before I do” You were huffy and that was clear in your voice and mannerisms which made everything more funny to Steve.

“Okay, fair enough… I live in a compound because I work there” the waiter came with your order and Steve stopped, but you wouldn’t let him simply stop there.

“What do you do?”

He laughed again “Calm down, I’m getting there… I work for some NGOs, thus I travel a lot because of work, I was in Sokovia a month ago and last week I was in Wakanda looking for a sponsorship, thus I have a little house in the suburbs for when I have some time off, my life is not normal by any means so I like to have a taste of the typical American life for a couple of days…”

Your eyes were bugged and your moth was open, you didn’t even see the waiter bring your food that laid untouched on the table; That was certainly not what your were expecting “Do you get paid for that?”

He laughed again, the question was insensible but you didn’t really care “For the NGOs, no, I’m a volunteer; But I work on the Stark project for gifted children, I’m one of the owners, that’s the compound I live in, and that’s my paying job”

You grabbed a piece of your food and leaned on the chair completely astonished “Real life hero… That explains a lot…”

He clapped his hands together and leaned closer to you, resting his elbows on the table “Okay… My turn”

You rolled your eyes, you didn’t want to answer any questions right now, but it was only fair so you signaled him to get on with it.

“What do you do for a living?”

“I’m a journalist.”

“What do you write about?”

“Social equality, political crisis, world hunger… this kind of stuff. It’s a small paper but at least I get to write about what I want…”

He gave a sturgeon face and you chuckled “What? Not what you were expecting?”

“I’m just surprised… You’re feisty, I thought you were a wrestling champion or something…”

He seemed really proud of his joke and you rolled your eyes once again “Ha-ha”

“Okay, continuing… I know you don’t live on that house across the street, I’ve never seen you there and I’ve chatted many times with, I assumed they are, your parents. I saw them leaving the house this morning when I woke up so is not like they leaved or something for you to be there…”

You were perplexed about how much he knew about you just by putting one and one together so you didn’t even stop him from talking… “By your reaction this morning I assume you live and work in New York so my next question is… Do you visit them often?”

“No…” You got serious and as much as you wanted to hide, it was clear that there was something there, Steve’s expression changed making it clear that he noticed that too and making you fear his next question.

“And why were you there this weekend?”

The events of Friday night flashed in your mind and you faked a laugh to disperse from what you were truly feeling “Sorry Stevie, you must be at least a level 4 friend to unlock this backstory”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked…”

“It’s okay…”

The atmosphere had clearly changed; You finished your food in silence and went on with your journey; You knew it wasn’t fair, Steve had told you everything you asked about and more, and besides, you would probably never see the guy again after this trip. But still, you felt embarrassed about what had happened…

In the car you caught yourself staring at Steve, maybe he noticed maybe he didn’t; He was literally the kindest guy you had ever met, he didn’t even know you and he helped you more in one morning than most people had help you, or anyone for that matter, in a year. And you had been nothing but harsh on him…

“Okay… You’ve earn it”

He looked at you surprised and you continue without looking him in the eye.

“So here’s what happened…”

Part 1  —  Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

>>I actually am curious about what you guys think happened on Friday night (feel free to tell me -send an ask, message, reply to this post… however you prefer, I already know what happened for sake of the story so is not like I’m going to choose one of your ideas, but I really want to hear you!

Feel free to ask if you want to be tagged

@crownie-sr @winterboobaer @supernatural52 @promarvelfangirl @always-an-evans-addict @ballerinafairyprincess @ailynalonso15 @do-you-mind-if-i-slytherin1 @hairdye-enthusiast @marvelouslyloki @mattymattymerduck @pato-el-cerdito @lapetitsyrene @anastasiaannaa

My role-models @bovaria @austinamelio @officialcaptain-marvel @mattymattymerduck @howlingbarnes @bionic-buckyb @just-call-me-mrs-captain @redwriteblue @greensearcher (I’ve not been tagging her because she doesn’t write Marvel, but GUYS you HAVE to read her fics!! Or at least Mirrors… Is a BEAUTY AND THE BEAST AU!! and it’s P-E-R-F-E-C-T!!)

#kaits5kauchallenge #Steve x Reader #Steve Rogers #reader inser #Steve Rogers x Reader #Marvel AU #The Good Neighbor

[729renegades]

BUILDING A BUSINESS FROM SCRATCH – PART 5

  The majority of business owners believe that when they leave formal education the learning stops.

Educated business owners however think differently. They know that to be successful in any field, you have to be prepared to do what others won’t.

For us entrepreneurs this means going to work on ourselves, through personal growth and development; which in turn, impacts both personal life and business growth. Apart from the basic maths and English, formal education doesn’t teach us much.

We’re taught to memorise or copy what’s in front of us. How much thinking did the teachers actually get us to do when we were in school?… Not a lot from memory.

Don’t get me wrong, we learn some very good life skills, make friends and try to enjoy it, but my personal opinion is that the curriculum needs a shakeup. There are vitally important skills that could be taught at schools.

Financial education is one that would help everybody. Is there any wonder the majority of people are in debt? We are not educated in how to manage money. We were never shown. We have to make mistakes, so we can learn from them. A mistake that could set us back years in our adult lives.

Business/entrepreneurialism is another subject that in my opinion should be standard in the national curriculum. For me this should be taught during the first year in secondary school. What a head start that would be for any young budding entrepreneurs.

Even if this is just to give a basic understanding of how business works and encouragement from the teachers for students to be creative and follow their dreams. If this were the case, we’d have a hell of a better understanding and belief than any student leaving school today.

Here’s a staggering statistic… Only 1% of business owners have achieved millionaire status. Think about that for a minute. Just 1%. This is an astonishing statistic compared to the millions of businesses all over the globe.

These 1% think totally different to your average business owner. They understand that their business is only as good as the thinking they bring to the it.

Eventually, every entrepreneur’s thinking peaks, which in turn caps growth, both for them personally and their business. The average business owner however is destined to never hit their full potential because they are ignorant to the fact that they are the lid on their business.

To overcome these limits, you have to make self-education and personal development a priority in your day to day activities.

The 1% make self-education and personal growth a priority in their daily life. As entrepreneurs and business owners, we already lead very busy lives. However, most people are busy being busy, working in their business and not on their business because of their limited thinking. It’s not their fault, they’ve never been educated or shown any other way.

They started a business because they are experienced in that particular sector or skill. Their business is wrapped around them and doesn’t function without them making decisions, and eventually they become trapped in their business.

After years of building the business, it fails to gain any value because the business doesn’t work without its owner. They effectively own a job, and the chances of them selling the business and the financial return if they did would both be very low.

As an entrepreneur, for me personal growth is a non-negotiable daily habit. I have four different strategies which contribute to my personal development.

Strategy 1 – Reading

Every year I set myself a personal goal to read 24 books a year. I achieve this by reading for 1 hour a day. I wake up early, make a coffee and dedicate the first hour of my day to personal growth. I read a range of business, personal growth and mind set books. Some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, such as Bill Gates, make reading part of their daily routine. On average Gates reads four books a month, so I also need to up my game. What a fine example Bill Gates is. He’s one of the richest men in the world and is still looking to improve the wealth of knowledge he already has.

We don’t know what we don’t know, and reading is a fantastic way to get educated

Some of the great books I have read, have helped and inspired me to implement the strategies offered. I’ve also had a couple of books that have bored the living hell out of me and couldn’t wait to finish, but I’ve always persevered, stayed focused and seen the book through to the end.  This is because there’s always a chance of a golden nugget of information that just might impact my thinking or business.

My top 5 books that I’d recommend anyone to read are:

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Built to Sell by John Warrillow

The e-Myth by Michael E Gerber

The One Thing Gary W Keller

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

Not only have I read these books once, but I’ve read them several times and implemented what I’ve learned.

Reading may not be for everyone, but with technology at our disposal, there are many different ways of listening to books rather than reading. For instance, listening to audiobooks and podcasts is something I do when I’m on the treadmill in the gym or travelling long journeys in the car. It’s simple really, the more you learn the more you earn.

If you’re not a great reader or even a fan of reading, then start with a small goal of one book or audio book a month. The aim is to make reading a daily habit. It takes 30 days for an activity to become a habit. During these 30 days your commitment will be tested to its limits, so stick with it and reap the benefits from educating yourself through another person’s experience.

Strategy 2 – Mastermind Group

Being an entrepreneur and owning your own business can be very lonely place at times. Where or who do you turn to for help, guidance or advise. Most may turn to their friends or family, or even Joe Blogs down the pub. Whoever you turn to for advice you can pretty much guarantee they will not be qualified to answer the questions you pose to them. Not that it’s their fault, it’s just their opinion on what they think is right or what they think you want to hear.

Now, if you’re serious about your business and want to grow it, you need to be part of the mastermind process. Joining a Mastermind Group was the best decision I’ve ever made. My business has grown 200% and my personal life has improved dramatically.

Is your aim to be successful, or to be just like 99% of business owners?  If it’s to be successful, a Mastermind Group will get you there quicker, but only if you’re willing to invest the time and money necessary.

Every day in business we have to make decisions. Decisions that can change the direction of our life.

In part 3 of this series I wrote about the tough decision I had to make three years ago. I had a tremendous opportunity to become part of a Mastermind Group. Like all tough decisions, I had a couple of obstacles and road blocks in my way.

The first, how do I find the time? The second, how could I afford it? Spaces were limited, and I knew I had to act quickly or miss an opportunity of a lifetime. So, I quickly found solutions to the road blocks. I freed up the time by employing a new salesman then sold my brand-new Porsche [this one did hurt a little] which gave me the money to invest in this opportunity. Sorted.

Having put these solutions in place, I joined my Mastermind Group. Now I had my board I couldn’t afford. I had nine other entrepreneurs to help with my challenges and also guidance for me and my businesses.

At our first summit, we all started off as complete strangers, by the end of our three-day summit together, we left as friends. My board I can’t afford are not like Joe Blogs down the pub. These people are entrepreneurs, some in the infancy of their journeys and some who are experienced and successful. What impressed me the most about the group was, some of them had been there and done it in a range of businesses. Which is great, because they’re making me aware of what I’m going to experience in the future. In a way, I’m learning a lesson in business just by listening to their experience.

For me personal growth is a non-negotiable daily habit

Within the group I realised that everyone had something individual and brilliant to bring to the table. We’re all go givers and are there to help each other stretch our thinking and grow our businesses.  It’s great to be a part of everyone’s journey, seeing them grow and develop knowing that you’ve contributed to their success. There’s no better feeling than giving back and helping people achieve their goal and visions.

All very highly successful entrepreneurs are in Mastermind Groups, Buffet, Gates and Branson to name a few. Napoleon Hill’s book ‘Think and Grow Rich’, has helped make more millionaires than any other book in history. He explains a mastermind process best by saying:

“The mastermind may be defined as coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony between two or more people. For the attainment of a definite purpose”.

Imagine the power of ten minds working in perfect harmony, working on your goals and visions. During this process, you hit a different level of awareness. You’re consciously thinking and educating each other. Ten different viewpoints to one question, all from experienced entrepreneurs. That’s the true power of participating in a Mastermind Group.

Mastermind Groups have been around for many years and only seem to be for the highly successful people. It feels like it’s been a big secret between the highly successful. Well, if you’re reading this then it’s no longer a secret.

Do you want you and your business to be highly successful? Do you want to achieve financial freedom? What does financial freedom look like for you? Can you overcome any limiting beliefs that would previously have stopped you from applying for a Mastermind Group?

Opportunities to join groups do not come around often. This maybe the first time you’ve ever read or heard about one. I would advise any business owner who wants to enjoy a fulfilled life and achieve financial freedom to join one and watch you and your business grow.

  To be continued in the next issue…

      from Blog | 729renegades http://bit.ly/2vqszwT

#Blog | 729renegades

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Clash of Clans MOD Apk + Unlimited Gems + Gold + Elixir Free Download

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Clash of Clans MOD Apk + Unlimited Gems + Gold + Elixir Free Download

Clash of Clans is the most popular Strategy game ever created for any android devices. This latest version has Unlimited Gems, Unlimited Gold, Unlimited Elixir and many more special features, which is absolutely free! Now DOWNLOAD this COC special version and join millions of players worldwide as you build your village, raise a clan, and compete in epic Clan Wars. There are huge Mustachioed Barbarians, fire-wielding Wizards, and other unique troops are waiting for you.

Clash of Clans Latest Version Special Features

Now you can Upgrade to the all-new Town Hall 12 to have your Town Hall fight back in these special features. Especially, if you Work together with your clan in Clan Games, you can earn valuable Magic Items. With this unlimited gems, you can easily Defend your village with a multitude of cannons, bombs, traps, mortars, walls and fight against the Goblin King in a campaign through the realm. Here are some reviews:

Shamim Khan: Coc is the best in my game. I like it. It is my favorite game. My town hall 10. My name is Shakib Khan. It is very strongest. It plays 3 years ago. On this time it fewer knowledge clash of clan. I am happy to say it fun of the game. I have 6 IDs and safeguard keeping supersell id. I have no problem. It comes from my life 3 years ago. I am very much from clash of clan. I have many friends. I wanted many many friends and help from friends. I everyday play it. I am a good boy. I have no game.

Matt Copley: love the game and especially what you guys have done lately with the rewards system. My clan and I wanted to know if it would be possible to add: 1. maybe a lab assistant, sort of like another builder, that helps in some way? we’ve found that when reaching later stages of town hall, there aren’t many opportunities to spend elixir except for in the lab, but upgrades are too slow to keep spending 2. a “builder queue” for setting builders to automatically start another job after finishing one?

Alan Bowmer: I used to love the game but the whole Gold Pass deal and Hero model updates are disagreeable with, plus the whole not having to refill your traps anymore?!?! Normally this would be an almost 5-star review but ever since the April update.it doesn’t seem to deserve it anymore. Plus the matching system is awful, how am I in Crystal League when I don’t attack people and when I do it’s someone it Titan League, I’ve played for years, but it may be the last if this update doesn’t get better.

Carter Schlomann: I LOVE coc, the reason this is only 2 stars is because of the new challenges. why do you have to pay for the gold pass!?! why not make it ingame currency, so let’s see, most people already can’t get gold pass. also if you don’t get gold pass you only get about 1/4 of the items, all of them about 10x better than the regular one. so basically, it shows you care more about the money than the players.😓 also, the heroes look like trash.

Chace Aguirre: very competitive game. requires a lot of hours into building a good base. I noticed a pay to win aspect. to speed up the process of builders it requires gems. Gems are the in-game currency used to get materials or building times to go faster. overall it’s an addicting game, but with the pay to win aspect, it can get pricey. I would recommend this game to any adult. Hint: watch your bank account carefully if your children want to play this game.

Rupinder Kaur: I love warfighting strategy games. But this game was beyond anything I thought it was better. As soon as I opened it I was astonished to look at the graphics quality and the funny people in the game who taught me how to play it. Since that time I have been playing this game. Really good app. The new update was also good. The only problem is that when I zoom to see graphics quality becomes a bit poor otherwise this is one of the greatest strategy games. We all love COC!

H.M.D: My experience with this game is since 2015. Its a really good game. I am playing this game since 2015. I didn’t get any kind of errors. But Today, (“When I update my game. And when I try to play. I tap on the game icon. It opens just for 2 to 3 then it close immediately. I don’t what happened this.”) I reinstalled and re-downloaded and also restart my Android mobile. But still getting this anonymous error. Kindly it’s my request to supercell to help me. I cant able to play the game after the latest update.

Hunter Tripp: the game is amazing, I have been playing forever, but there are a few bugs. one that I really hate is when I beat a base and the game crashes, and I don’t get anything from that attack and my troops are gone. it shows in the attack log, but j don’t get anything from it. I know it’s not my phone because mine is only a year old. please fix this for a 5-star review.

Joe Quain: I think this game is amazing. Although, I think that the clan castle reinforcements are way too overpowered. For example, You could be up against a very easy base. And just after you place down all your troops, a bunch of level 6 troops will emerge from the clan castle and kill all of your troops. I think that they should add a way to know that your enemy has reinforcements, as I have lost at least 400 trophies because of it.

Aa Hh Ss Hamim: Thank you, Supercell for such a great game like Clash of clans. It is totally an amazing game I have played. according to my records, it is the first game I have played most from the other games. The updates are too good. When I was about to think about Clash of clans I was waiting for the time when I get a new event and updates from you. Thanks for such a great game like this. Looking for a new update. I am a little bit upset, cause there is no flag of Bangladesh.-Coc lovers of BD… 😍💖😍💖😍

vince friend: I’ve been playing with this app for about 3 years and I must say that I love this game. you can apply your strategies in achieving to have 3 stars or just one star. the troops are amazing and at the same time, so awesome and their abilities. contrary to it, the time consumptions in upgrading anything is a bit challenging and I think that is the essence of playing this game. with a lot of patience, all of the hard work is paid off. keep up the best work and looking forward to the new experience.

xPrOgAmEr1088 x: Honestly, this game was great fun. The new update, and updates to come, however, have and will ruin the game. Firstly, the new hero skins. Simply changed for an opportunity for a microtransaction. It’s basically the skins you would find in some rip off online arcade game with poor graphics. Secondly, and more importantly, the new town halls to come. There’s way too many, and I don’t expect many people to achieve the top, except through buying to win, which yet another opportunity for money-making.

Stacey Taylor: This game is amazing. There is no profanity and if there is you can flag them and they will get in trouble. THERE ARE NO ADDS!!!!! Honestly, this game is fitting for young kids (in my opinion.) I will be truthful. You don’t have to play with random strangers. you can play with your friends. You don’t have to, but you can. This is my opinion you should play this game. you’re not forced to but again, this is my opinion.😻😹🙀😸 Don’t listen to all the haters. they talk in anger.

Tigger Tigger: the game is great and I love everything about it but what’s the point of having four barracks if you only train one thing at a time? it seems like a waste of elixir upgrading the other barracks to the same level as the others if you only need one to train the entire army.

Martin Mroz: I have been playing this game for almost 5 years now. I’ve never played a game this long in my life and until today, I thought I was going to play Clash of Clans forever. However, this new update has changed that. Before this update, you could earn everything in the game just by playing. It would take much longer, but still doable. Now, they want you to spend $6 a month just for the opportunity to get some items that you otherwise cannot get. Thanks for ruining the game and wasting 5 years of my life.

Download APK

Additional Information

App Download Version 11.446.20 Last Updated April 17, 2019 Apk Size 130 MB Offered By Supercell Category Strategy Content Rating Rated for 7+ Support Android Version Android 4.1 and up Installs 500,000,000+ Play Store Available

#Clash of Clans MOD Apk

[louisstephaneulysse]

GOODBYE DEAR NICKY I’m writing this now before I have time to think logically. I feel so regally let down by time and fate, that it’s difficult to do much more than marvel at the preposterous puppetmasters that act on whims and fancy to mess with our visions of perfection. That’s me-me-me/ it’s all about me railing the fates. It helps a lot to blast the Kinks and write down some thoughts, so bear with me please. I know you all are going have great memories of him in the eels and the Cramps- go to it, but for me it’s the time before any band stuff, 40 years ago, and most recent history, when he picked up and called me on Feb 4, 2017. This is a start on a longer entry for kicksville66 I’ll write some more about meeting up on October 13 of last year at Franklin Castle, and him doing his darndest to A&R a young band he knew, Archie & the Bunkers for Norton. For now, here’s what I’ve got. Read it and weep.

**************************************************** I last saw Nicky – Nick Knox- - who most you know as the drummer of note for 70’s bands the electric eels and the Cramps, last weekend, in intensive care at the Cleveland Clinic. It was heartbreaking, as I had spent a few great days with him at the end of April, when I went out to Ohio to hunt down photos from George Shuba and meet with Wally Bryson regarding the record we were about to issue on his great band, the Choir. Nicky had seemed well and happy at that time, all charged up and ready to go. We had a ball with George, and it was great listening to the two of them talking about every rock n roll show that had ever happened in Cleveland, it seems.

Somebody asked about my friendship with Nicky, how it all happened. Some of you may not know that we were friends before either of us were in bands; that after summer of ’77, we didn’t see each other for 40 years; and that we became great friends again last year.

I received a phone call from Nicky, out of the blue, a year and a half ago, three months after Billy’s passing and four months after my own brain surgery. When he said it was Nick calling, I thought it was Nick Tosches, who was the only Nick I knew of. He was offering condolences and I thought, why would Nick T say this stuff- he had been at the funeral. So I asked “Who is this?” And he said “It’s Nicky, Miriam- Nick Knox.” I nearly fell out of my chair. I had not heard from him in 40 years.

I was in the midst of what you might call high grief, complicated by thick sleepiness and post-gamma knife brain fog that came, as predicted, after the new year. It had me in a state of panic and fear, matched with various parts of loneliness and despair, and narcoleptic sleepiness. To say I was despondent is putting it lightly. That phone call saved me from falling into a well.

After that first call, we soon came up a plan to talk on the phone every day at 11:11 AM, and we stuck with that, basically a mutual check-up call, always cheerful, at least on alternating sides. He knew, somehow, what I was dealing with, and said that I was, “like the little sister I never had”. He ended every call the same way, “Miriam, I love you, I love you, I love you.” I have a feeling he dispensed the love x 3 line to his many younger relatives who adored him, as well, because it’s the kind of thing you’d tell a child, and there’s some baby in each of us when we’re not feeling perfect. I looked forward to the daily check up calls, and I soon realized that he needed the pep talks as well.

Nicky and I had been friends since the early 70’s, when my sis Helen and I started coming into Cleveland to see bands. In 1973, we saw the Dolls at the Allen Theatre and then the Stooges and Slade in January of ’74. When I say “we”, I mean every Cleveland no-count between the ages of 14 and 24. It seems that every person in NE Ohio who ended up in a band was at those shows. I cover a lot of this stuff in my Kicksville66 blog, so let me just get to recent happenings.

Nicky was a voracious reader- he read every rock n roll biography and autobiography – checked out from the library, and he had the benefit of a near-photographic memory, and an astonishing ability to recall dates and places, and really minute details. More than any book, though, he was addicted, still, to his beloved MAD magazine, and also to the little game schedule of Indians games. He gave me one of those pocket scheds and said, “I am not available at game time.” So strict!

A friend gave me back a letter that I wrote in 1975 where I describe a trip to New York with a carload of friends, including Stiv, Babs, James and “Nick who looks like a Kink”. The Kinks were by far his favorite band, and I gave him the Anthology CD set for his birthday this year (for the car). Like myself, he had seen them at their first appearance in Cleveland in December 1975, where he got the famous Mad magazine clipping autographed by the Davies brothers. He had laminated it with the ticket stub and it had vanished in with his 45s for decades. It turned up this spring and he brought out to show me in February. I took a photo of it, enlarged it, and Dave Davies autographed for him it again on April 3. It meant a lot to him, a real lot. The Kinks thing runs so deep in all serious fans, and for myself, speaking with Nicky every day reminded me of the really fantastic days of fandom and record hoarding, and it set me on a return mission to mayhem with them.

Nicky hated attention from strangers, even when they were well meaning fans. When he came out of the woodwork to DJ that first time Oct. 13, then on Feb 23 and again on April 28, he refused photos and autographs from nearly everyone. What he did take to like a fish to water was DJ’ing. When we were goofing around about having a DJ battle, he called in a panic to say he couldn’t find his copy of the Grasshoppers “Mod Sox” and could I bring along a copy. I thought, WOW! The Grasshoppers, this is gonna be fun! And it surely was. He brought along a lot of surprises, and always the rockers- for the last gig, he asked, “Can I just bring all Larry Williams?” The end of the night at that gig, the room was empty except for myself and Kitty and Pascal, our friends from Franklin Castle. The record players were still set up and the lights were low, and I asked him if he wanted to spin some more. He smiled and said, “Ooohhhh, YES”, and I offered to help. “Go dance,” he said, and for a long while, it was magic. Kitty and Pascal and I dancing along the black and white tile patterned floor, with twinkling lights and us cheering Nicky on with each new record. We’d wave at him, and he’d wave back. It was one of the happiest moments ever, being back in the land that time forgot, and seeing my old friend having a great time—with 45’s in hand. That night there was a full moon- all four of us thought that made it extra special.

Many people will have great memories of Nicky. These were some of mine, set down on the morning after his passing. I thank God that Nicky was a friend of mine. He was one of the kindest, funniest, most amazing human beings ever and I was very lucky to have been in his orbit.

Much love to Jeanne and the family, who he loved so much, and who have treated me with such love. And also, love to Ernie.

Miriam Lynna (on FB post)

https://www.facebook.com/miriam.linna/posts/10155280546612016

#myriam lynna #nick knox #the cramps

[hottytoddynews]

We’ve gotten used to the Christmas holiday season beginning around Halloween, but how often has Halloween thriller season begun the week after Labor Day? As the studios and moviemakers have learned, there’s a huge audience for horror. If you are skeptical, look at the grosses for new latest in Tyler Perry’s Madea franchise. Major record-breaking!

For the longest time, producers/studios would grind out assembly-line horror, capitalizing on mindless or copycat sequels of original hits that would make you groan, “Been there, seen it.” But even the usual suspects have come around; and there seems to be a newbie at the game: Blumhouse Productions, which this season could be crowned Prince of Horror.

You might say that horror season began way before Halloween — even in February. That’s when Get Out! (Blumhouse Productions/Universal), featuring Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener, Allison Williams (TV’s Girls) and young Brit Daniel Kaluuya (TV’s Babylon; upcoming Watership Down mini-series based on Richard Adams novel) hit cineplexes. It wasn’t a cookie-cutter, standard-issue thriller, but smart and well made – and had a sense of humor. It also offered a thoughtful look at the race issues making headlines.

Young Anglo woman (Williams) invites Afro-American young man (Kaluuya) for a meet-the-parents getaway, where he finds the family overly accommodating — an effort to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship. As the weekend progresses, disturbing discoveries come to a head and lead him to a truth he never could have imagined. Something different, yes? And, going even further, it was R-rated. That usually can be the death knell to a film pitched for teens, the catalyst for a film’s opening weekend. They came, whether accompanied by an adult or with fake I.D.s. A film budgeted at a minuscule $5 million has raked in over $175.5 million. 

Jeepers Creepers III (Infinity/Screen Media) quickly followed. Set between the first and second film, it was quickly obvious it was in the lesser category. Sergeant Tubbs (Brandon Smith) went about attempting to learn the secrets and identify of Creeper (Jonathan Breck), the monster terrorizes a local farming community. Lovely Trisha (Gina Phillips) was sort of pushed aside for the introduction of Gaylen Brandon (Meg Foster (TVs Pretty Little Liars and Ravenswood), stealing the film, as someone with a history with the Creeper. It didn’t help. Initial audiences were bored, word-of-mouth was a downer. Made for $18 million, it grossed a paltry $2.3 million (JC1 exploded at the box office with sales of $35.7 million). Maybe the gross will rise – a bit – with the DVDs’ December release.

Oscar nominee Jennifer Jason Leigh, Bella Thorne (Boo!: A Madea Halloween; TV’s Famous in Love, Big Love), Thomas Mann (Kong: Skull Island), and Kurtwood Smith (TV’s That 70s Show) weren’t enough to turn the lack of horror in Amityville: The Awakening (Blumhouse Productions/Dimension/TWC) into a silk purse. After a two-year shelf life, it was comatose (like Belle‘s twin brother) on arrival.

Then Came September   

“When you are a kid you think the world revolves around you, that you’ll always be protected, care for. Then, one day: a friend goes missing.” The opening words of It (New Line/Warner Bros./RatPac-Dune Entertainment), the cinema adaptation of the 1990 three-hour mini-series based on Stephen King’s terrifying best-seller, leads audiences on a thrill ride as satisfying as any on a mega coaster. The plot line involves kids of a small town, rumored to be cursed, disappearing in bloody spades. A gang of seven, led by Richie (Finn Wolfhard, Mikie on Stranger Things), united by their horrifying and strange encounters with the evil Pennywise the Clown (Bill Skarsgård), mount their bikes determined to kill “It.” Been there, seen it? But, even with parallels to Stand By Me, The Goonies, and TV’s Stranger Things, it rises to the occasion. Here, though much condensed, it’s all about bonding and the paranormal, but the paranormal’s never been quite like this: Atmosphere (that haunted house; and especially the horrific finale, which even tops David Lean’s in The Third Man), piercing score by Benjamin Wallfisch (Blade Runner 2049, Annabelle: Creation, Hidden Figures), jump-scare sound effects, and, best of all, the brotherly-love kiss to bring back the living dead. Argentine Andy Muschietti (2013 horror thriller Mama) is set to helm the 2019 sequel.

Oddly, with a cast of youngsters, the film’s R-rated for violence and, something you don’t hear often, F words cascading out of the mouths of babes. That hasn’t stopped it from blockbuster status – grossing $179 million in less than two months, ($189.5 million worldwide) on a budget of $35 million.  Reminder: whether pouring cats and dogs or not, on Jackson Street or any other, never look deep into those corner drains!

Happy Death Day (Blumhouse Productions/Universal Pictures) is a dark comedy mystery horror thriller borrowing lavishly from the classic Groundhog Day. On her birthday, teenager Tree (excellent Jessica Rothe) concludes that it will be her last one. That is, IF she can figure out who her killer is. To do that, she relives the day over and over – dying in a different way on each one. No way you’ll snooze, as you get sucked in even before the film begins [You’ll see]. Keep a keen eye on Tree. Christopher Landon (Disturbia, Paranormal Activity) knows how to keep you on the edge of your seat. Shooting in New Orleans’ Garden District, home to the streetcar and fabled mansions, adds tons of atmosphere.

In Boo 2: A Madea Halloween (Tyler Perry Company/Lionsgate) Madea, Bam, and Hattie venture to a haunted campground where they end up running for their lives from a boogeyman, goblins, and monsters, goblins, and the boogeyman are unleashed. Perry has an audience for his sometimes amateurish movies that  segue between embarrassing and somewhat funny. He comes up with great ideas and one has to be envious of his multi-talents and following. In his films, he  plays a lot of characters – some, such as Madea, much better than others. Maybe the mistake is in doing it all: writing, directing, and co-producing.  Boo! 2. But the film shot out of the gate October 20 and astonished the industry selling performances out. Budgeted at $25 milion, it has already grossed $35.5 million. Boo! 2 became an instant hit. Budgeted at $25 million, it’s close to exceeding that in just over a week.

Jigsaw (Serendipity Productions/Lionsgate) is the eighth title in the Saw franchise, which became a popular slasher series with face-cringing, spine tingling twists to the serial killer saga and a look at the day’s social mores. Then it ended, until this past weekend when it’s been reborn in hopes of bringing in more moola. As bodies drop everywhere – each with gruesome demise that fit Jigsaw’s style, police find themselves chasing the ghost of a man presumed dead for over a decade (Tobin Bell), and become embroiled in a new cat and mouse game. Is Jiggy/John Kramer back? Is this a copy cat? Or  are they falling into a trap set by another monster? The story is told in such a fast pace that there’s little time for character development. However, it gets props for the show-stopping, head-rolling finale. The film got a knife in its back from critics and moviegoers. One reviewer’s assessment: “Watching Jigsaw is a dumb, ugly waste of energy.”

There Was Another Horror at the Weekend Box Office

Suburbicon (Paramount/Dark Castle/Black Bear Pictures) – It had the cache of George Clooney as director when it premiered at the Venice Film Festival, but was received with a few boos. Conceived by Joel and Ethan Coen (remember their 2016 misfire Hail, Caesar!, about a tough Hollywood studio “fixer”), Clooney (a Hail, Caesar! co-star), and Grant Heslov (co-writer, Matt Damon’s Best Picture Argo), is a racially-charged farce that “draws parallels between the U.S.’ ugly past and the situation today.” Damon, Julianne Moore, and Oscar Isaac, Summer of 1959, are in an Eden to raise a family: an idyllic community with affordable homes and manicured lawns. However, tranquility changes to disturbing reality in the town’s s dark underbelly of betrayal, deceit, and violence [including flaming Confederate flags]. Come critics went “Huh?” and “Huh!” The often kind Rotten Tomatoes wrote: “It’s A Raisin in the Sun Meets The Donna Reed Show. Only occasionally does an image strike a lyrical blow and yield the creepy effect Clooney is aiming for.” Worse, audiences weren’t camping overnight to be the first at box offices. Maybe it will develop a cult following.

At Home 24/7 Horror and Halloween Fright Fest  

Is this not the best time of year to revisit famous Halloween spook with everything from zombies and slashers to séances and lots of screams? There’s so much horror to enjoy spread on the couch with a beer or soda and chips and dip. Can anything top the original Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy, Hitch’s Psycho, Kubrick’s The Shining [Where’s Jack? Bring him back!]? Maybe a bit of Poltergeist; or some Stephen King? How about Halloween, The Fog, Christine or anything by John Carpenter, because he knows how to scare your pants off? There’s Wes Craven’s bad ole Freddy in  Nightmare on Elm Street; or the original Saw; contemporary grand guignol of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?; and any season of American Horror Story – because Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck know how to creep you out. Then, there’s family-friendly “horror” in Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein/Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde/The Invisible Man.

3-D is having a much-longer shelf life than expected. For a great at-home theatrical experience, check out the Blu-ray 3-D edition of the edge-of-your-cushioned-seat 1953 blockbuster House of Wax [Warner Home Entertainment, SRP $40]. Vincent Price, so fantastic playing madmen, is perfect casting for demented Professor Henry Jarrod. The Technicolor, pre-digital 3-D two-projector image realignment, and sound track have been meticulously remastered with a 4K scan. Don’t spill your popcorn as you experience one of the most incredible horror flick finales. Beware: You can’t escape the flames!

If your dream is a near lifetime of at-home horror, get 50 Horror  Classics (Mill Creek Entertainment; 3,743 minutes/12 discs; $15.65 on Amazon). The massive set contains some classics – keep in mind the majority are from the 30s and 40s and most, if not all, fall into Public Domain, so they haven’t been remastered: The Ape (Boris Karloff), Bluebeard (John Carradine), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (John Barrymore, Silent), Allan Dwan’s comic romp The Gorilla (Ritz Brothers, Bela Lugosi), William Castle’s The House on Haunted Hill (Vincent Price),

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Lon Chaney, Silent), Roger Corman’s  Little Shop of Horrors (Jack Nicholson),  Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, Murnau’s Nosferatu (Max Schreck, Silent), The Phantom of the Opera (Lon Chaney, Silent), and, among numerous others, White Zombie (Lugosi).

Universal Studios’ horror period produced first-rate thrillers. Six have been remastered for Blu-ray for Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection (Universal Home Entertainment; eight discs/710 minutes; $45 on Amazon): James Whale’s  Bride of Frankenstein (Elsa Lancaster, Karloff, Colin Clive) – many feel this sequel surpasses its predecessor, Tod Browning’s Dracula (Lugosi) – note how the mood is set with a lack of score, Whale’s Frankenstein (Karloff, Clive, Mae Clark), The Invisible Man (Claude Rains) – with humor to offset the horror, The Mummy (Karloff), and The Wolfman (Lon Chaney Jr.). There’s bonus material galore, including an alternate Dracula score by Philip Glass, performed by the Kronos Quartet.

Ellis Nassour is an Ole Miss alum and noted arts journalist and author who recently donated an ever-growing exhibition of performing arts history to the University of Mississippi. He is the author of the best-selling Patsy Cline biography, Honky Tonk Angel, as well as the hit musical revue, Always, Patsy Cline. He can be reached at [email protected]. 

The post Halloween Cinema Treats That Keep on Giving appeared first on HottyToddy.com.

#hottytoddy #olemiss #oxfordms #oxford ms #mississippi #university of mississippi #the grove

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The generator that is IMVU is a web-based software supplied for you by Games. It’s a course that enables gamers and consumers like you to ultimately get breaks that are IMVU quickly of IMVU. Alternatively, see a ton of movies or of you being forced to sit down a group of offerings, the credits generator is going to do the dirty function for you personally. As the breaks hack see hourly to entire hundreds of offers along with thousands of movies daily, we compare the IMVU breaks the IMVU hack

generate and provide them with to gamers like yourself.

The breaks generator that was IMVU is found on Games. There’s no importance of one to see with still another website to make use of the hack that is IMVU or is there a demand for you yourself to download any software that is cumbersome to get breaks that are free. You moments away from acquiring free breaks through the use of the

IMVU breaks compromise on Games.

Why You Need To Use the Breaks Hack

When you yourself happen to be enjoying with IMVU for no less than several moments, you need to comprehend why IMVU breaks are significant. Breaks are expected so that you can more or less unlock everything and trust in me, you’re heading to wanna uncover a huge amount of stuff, that’s virtually the stage of IMVU. Because of this, gamers real cash in trade is billing us for IMVU breaks. We are able to sit about and see a whole lot of advertisements if all of us don’t would like to get credits or we may do a couple of studies that are long to get some of the breaks. Spending money on breaks sucking and investing lots of time moment viewing movies to get a cent's worth of breaks and doing studies is actually suckier.

Because of this, we've created the IMVU breaks crack. This system is excellent and is free for all of you men that are 100%. It lets you jump on getting breaks and can most of the effort for you personally. By utilizing our IMVU breaks generator you will get a large number of free breaks day-to-day. There’s not a should get waste moment or breaks generating them.

Benefits and Drawbacks of the Breaks Hack

The breaks crack that is IMVU is great to get numerous grounds. But at moment and this stage, it’s maybe not ideal and we are going to describe the benefits and

drawbacks of the IMVU cheat today.

Benefits:

1. 100% safe

2. Breaks are attributed within the exact same evening (2 4 hrs)

3. Lets you the capacity to get free breaks that are IMVU immediately

4. Operates on cellular and Computer apparatus

5. 99% up month-to-month and time care

6. No need do any studies or to fund breaks /offers

Disadvantages:

1. Accessible in many states although perhaps not all

2. Usually, takes a couple of hrs for your free IMVU breaks (as much as 24 hrs)

3. Daily limit on # of breaks every day, it is possible to create

The group at Games is constantly operating around-the-clock to keep our secrets that are IMVU up. We make an effort to supply astonishing antics for IMVU to consumers

and we make an effort to maintain our credits generator that is IMVU operating economically for customers that are all interested.

Is the IMVU Crack Legitimate?

There are lots of forgery IMVU cheats on the market. The majority are scams and several are simply folks planning to steal your accounts that is IMVU to just take your breaks that are IMVU. We at Games make an effort to maintain all customers from the forgeries searching to hurt you and risk-free. That we supply our personal

IMVU breaks compromise here in order to understand you’re on a website that is secure and safe. Your consideration is protected and 100% risk-free when you employ our IMVU crack. Our breaks that are IMVU compromise to make use of a safe SSL relationship on several proxies that are personal to produce the ultra safe surroundings for our crack device that is IMVU to work. Your accounts, plus your our breaks generator, is

100% risk-free from diagnosis.

In addition, you may have satisfaction knowing which you don’t must offer your IMVU password to make use of our IMVU to anybody. Anybody inquiring for password and your IMVU e-mail needs to be averted and your account's password will never be asked for by us at Games. It’s maybe not needed to get free credits and it will never be asked for by us as a legitimate thing that is %. Thus utilize our IMVU breaks crack with self-confidence!.

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